Those of us using WiFi may find this article of interest, and of some concern. . . Cracking the Wi-Fi security protocol WEP is a probability game. The number of packets required to successfully decrypt the key depends on various factors, luck included. Last month, three researchers, Erik Tews, Andrei Pychkine and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann developed a faster attack (based on a cryptanalysis of RC4 by Andreas Klein), that works with ARP packets and just needs 85,000 packets to crack the key with a 95 per cent probablity. This means getting the key in less than two minutes. STORY & INTERVIEW

I don't know about you but WEP has been subjected to derision for more than a while now as far as WiFi security goes. But for anyone who is still using WEP, I guess it's never too late to switch to Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2).

Sabertooth, thanks for your input. I'd been considering WPA2. Ironically, only hours after I'd posted the story and interview from the Register, I found the following tutorial: How to Crack WPA/WPA2. Aircrack-ng, of course, is mentioned in the original story. Obviously, there is no such thing as absolute computer security; all the general user can do is stay abreast of the latest developments and tools. Until a true quantum computer is built - by the most generous estimates, decades into the future - impenetrable security will remain elusive. Then, however, we will have it. There is no way to compromise or probe a quantum state without collapsing the wave function. Keys generated in such states would be impervious to inspection, especially when they are constantly changing. Here, it would be a law of physics, not simply technology built from physics, that would offer ironclad security. Unfortunately, we may not live long enough to see the day. :)

If it is conceived by man....it can & will be taken down by man ;-)

Some basic work was being done in this area of computer security a few years ago, IronMan. I've lost track of the developers but, as I recall, they used quantum mechanics to encode the actual data being transmitted. Even if hackers intercept the data transmission, quantum physics denies them the ability to decode it because of quantum noise. Rather than relying on the difficulty of cracking one-way functions, quantum encryption creates uncrackable codes that use the laws of physics to guarantee security. Different quantum states can be employed to represent 1s and 0s which can't be observed without the receiver's discovering it. Example: If hackers observe a polarized photon, then 50% of the time they will scramble the result - making it impossible to hide their eavesdropping attempt from the receiver. For a hacker, it's hopeless. No amount of mathematical expertise, computational speed, or technological savvy can circumvent this law of quantum mechanics. Just as the fundamental law of relativity - the speed of light - cannot be broken. NS