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Tokyo Agencies Revert To Wired Connections For Data Security Concerns

Dec 27, 2002 •

Anthony Pell

1 min read

Topics Covered

security risks network protocol data exposure government agency wireless lan

Since anyone with the software could pry, cable is back in style. The Meteorological Agency and the Tokyo metropolitan government stopped using wireless local area networks (LAN) last week after learning data was wide open to anyone with the will . . . Since anyone with the software could pry, cable is back in style. The Meteorological Agency and the Tokyo metropolitan government stopped using wireless local area networks (LAN) last week after learning data was wide open to anyone with the will and the right software.

Wireless LANs are increasingly popular because they can be introduced or expanded quite simply without cumbersome cables.

But when Kazuo Tanabe, a computer consultant in Sabae, Fukui Prefecture, studied LAN emission risks around government office LANs in his own prefecture, then in Tokyo, he found that data transferred on wireless LANs could be intercepted and read by anyone using software freely available on the Web.