Speaking on Deep Background, the Press Secretary whispered:
My company is investigating the use of wireless in a couple of our
conference rooms. Aside from limiting the scope of reception with various
directional antennae, does anyone have any suggestions or pointers for
other ways to limit the propagation of signals (i.e. special shielding
paint, panels or other wall coatings)?
As I told Andy, you need a "RayProof" or similar brand shielded
conference room. This is Faraday Cage, with a tight-fighting door,
etc.
I don't know what they cost, but I've installed one or 2. Outside
of labor, I suppose they might be in the $50-500K range or so,
for small (12'x6') ones.
Note it's a PITA to keep tight; as the door needs very
tight-fitting gaskets.
You'll need to bring phone/Ethernet in over fiber,
but that's not hard.
Uhm, dumb question. If it is that important, why are you using
wireless at all? Why not install a cheap switch/hub in the middle of the
conference table and let people plug a patch cord from the hub to their
laptops?
Stupid pen-test tricks, instead of using an expensive WiFi scanner and
cracking WEP; often you can collect better intelligence with a radio
turned to the frequency used by wireless lapel mics used by executives
during briefings.
If you do put one in, and your local laws don't prevent smoking, make it an absolutely no-smoking area. Ventilation tends not to be wonderful.
I was once attending a Federal Telecommunications Standards Committee meeting, where we were displaced from our regular conference room and given a SCIF vault/conference room. It was stuffy enough as we met for a couple of hours, but as we adjourned, the NSA representative lit a cigar.
That's when we found out that the vault door was jammed.
No simple cipherlock. Full combination lock. Trust me. Do not ever get in a mostly-sealed room with a dead cigar and some smoke remnants. When we got out, maybe two hours later, our faces matched the government green [1] walls. If this hadn't been in the then-Defense Communications Agency headquarters with resident locksmiths, I don't know how long we'd have been there!
Seriously, give ventilation a lot of thought. You'll need ducts with grounded screening and lots of 90-degree bends.
Also, consider having a kick-out panel for emergency escape. Even without high-security locks, I've seen the gasketed doors get stuck just in shielded labs. Think of fire protection -- you really don't want a fire suppression gas release in a vault.
[1] I believe the proper descriptor for that shade of green is "gang".
Or by lecturers forgetting them as they went to the bathroom. I only did that once.
"Howard C. Berkowitz" wrote:
>Stupid pen-test tricks, instead of using an expensive WiFi scanner and
>cracking WEP; often you can collect better intelligence with a radio
>turned to the frequency used by wireless lapel mics used by executives
>during briefings.
Or by lecturers forgetting them as they went to the bathroom. I only
did that once.
[New Yorker cartoon of years gone by about the early shoulder-cameras
the CreepyPeepy]