Bluetooth
I was slow to catch on to the whole Bluetooth thing, I would see people walking around seemingly talking to them selves and only after further inspection did I ever realize they had a Bluetooth ear bud in. My curiosity arose and now I will share with you what it took me months of research to learn.
Bluetooth operates on a PAN, or personal area network. It supports media and voice. You can also connect to the internet with your Bluetooth device if your computer has an internet connection and a capable Bluetooth adapter. Bluetooth operates on a radio technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum, or FHSS, the basic workings of this are the data is chopped up and sent over many channels. Bluetooth operates at about 1Mbps. Several devices are Bluetooth enabled, GPS, cellular phones, personal computers, laptops, printers, and video game consoles. Bluetooth is available on all major operating systems including Windows XP and Windows Vista and Linux Kernel 2.6.20 and up.
Bluetooth isn’t just a convenience; it’s also another avenue of attack on you and your belongings. In 2001, a pair of researchers named Jakobsson and Wetzel discovered flaws in the Bluetooth’s encryption pairing mechanism, this flaw later lead researchers Ben and Adam Laurie, from A.L. Digital Ltd. To find that serious flaws in the security may lead to disclosure of personal data from the phones or computers. It was about this time that the “stars” started having their data swiped or “bluejacked” from their phones. Some hackers were even so generous enough to leave a message on the phone saying something along the lines of “owned” or “you have been hacked” or “you’ve been bluejacked”. Later, it was proven that although Bluetooth Is very low power, you can steal data from over a mile away using a special antenna and amplifiers.
Some practical advice for using your Bluetooth enabled device, if you are concerned with having it become someone’s target is to turn off the Bluetooth function unless you specifically need it for something, like syncing your phone or PDA or if you’re in the phone. Leaving your device in “visible” state only makes it more likely that something malicious will happen to you. Remember, even though it’s low power, people can still access your device, place calls, swipe your phone book and calendar and be gone before you even know what has happened. Imagine your shock and horror to find that you had called a bunch of toll-call numbers and racked up enormous bills in the process, this is just another one of the ways people will con you out of your money.
Lastly, I would like to reassure you all that you are not going to fry your brain from using Bluetooth, it simply does not produce enough power to be of any real threat. Now, if you find a way to increase the power ten-fold, then you can worry about it; however, until that time (which will never happen), worry not and talk all you want!
Have you used bluetooth? What do you think? I know it isn’t very secure but it seems to be the new wave of the future. Share your comments below!
