Wireless Security By The Gallon

prostoalex writes "The next effort to improve wireless security might involve a trip to Home Depot. Force Field Wireless sells buckets of aluminum and copped-laced paint designed to prevent the 802.11 packets from escaping the building, Information Week reports. The article also talks about the Firce Field's pitch to the government in order to improve the homeland security, but the only governments that got interested in anti-Wi-Fi paint were from the Middle East. According to the products page, they also sell the brush sets." Easier than wallpaper, or moving into an old house.

Well...

[imsabbel]

As this "security improvement" only affects computers in specially prepared rooms, WHY THE FUCK use wireless at all? A nice Cat5 is 10times faster than wifi, and even more tempest-proof than a metal painted room.
Not to mention that even to most fancy cable management system will be less work and cost than painting all walls+ceiling (and what about the floor if you arent in the basement?)...

Dong, Where is my automobile?

[stratjakt]

Convincing consumers to take wireless security seriously has been harder. "They see it like tinfoil on your head," Wray says. "They think it's kind of paranoid."

Uh, it is kind of paranoid.

And it's surely no substitute for a robust encryption scheme.

Since it's commercial in nature, how many modern offices can really do without cell phones and pagers?

Oh, and 64 bucks seems ridiculously expensive for latex paint with aluminum and copper filings mixed in.

This seems like one of those "theres a sucker born every minute" products, like monster cables, or green cd films to make your cds sound better.

Then again, who needs Old Glory Robot insurance if the robots cant detect you inside your house!

... Hmmmm ...

[ninjagin]

I checked out the page and the concept seems pretty neat -- kinda like painting on your own faraday cage. I wonder how well it affects the color or application of the paint. The window-tinty film is also a pretty cool concept, too, though it looks like it'd cut down on a lot of visible daylight along with keeping your wifi in. I like my sunshine.

The burning question I have (and hopefully a smarter-person-than-I can clue me in) is how is this going to affect my AM/FM/SW radio reception inside my house? It almost seems like a rooftop antenna would become a must-have, assuming that the blockage of signal would keep all those friendly informational radio waves from getting INTO my house.

Re:Boy...

[irving47]

HA. That one might even be too obscure for the /. crowd.

fire hazard

[iggymanz]

metallic paint might do the "Hindenburg thing" and quickly engulf the room. Also, metal fires are hard to put out.

Re:Well...

[rednip]

As this "security improvement" only affects computers in specially prepared rooms...more tempest-proof than a metal painted room

No the special rooms mentioned in the article are the Faraday cage, with which they compare the effect. This is what happens when you skim an article, just looking for something to bitch about. The article clearly states that this paint is intended for entire buildings, for example (from the article):

DefendAir would be an attractive option to protect an RFID-enabled warehouse, he says.

Also

More important, it blocks mobile-phone signals.

Can you imagine the benifit of using it in the outside paint for a movie theater, or resturant. You whouldn't even have to use jammers (which whould bleed into the street and are illegal anyways) to achieve freedom from hearing only one side of someone's conversation.

Too much *and* too little

[rarose]

This is too little protection for the people who need it (i.e. corporate/government protection), so those folks will opt for more serious protection.

This is too much protection for Joe Casual User who will pissed at bad cellphone reception, bad TV reception, bad coreless phone. Or downright ineffectiveness if they don't also paint the ceiling, floor and windows. (Note on business plan: Shit! Windows???!? What are we going to do about windows? )

Thumbs down.

Fire!

[Zegnar]

So, what happens when the fire department run in, and their radios don't work?