Security

[cdybedahl]

Bruce Schneier's blog points at this article. Which says that tapping fibre optic cables is not just possible, but actually not even all that hard. Which in turn makes me wonder what the military security types I briefly worked with ten years ago knew that I didn't, since they not only insisted that all network cabling be fibre but also that all the fibre in the office be placed so it could be easily seen by anybody walking past.

Comments

[jimpa.livejournal.com]

Well, I remember people referring to articles of this about ten years ago but I haven't seen small kits like this before.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Fiber is harder to tap than copper - and pretty much immune to any TEMPEST-style intercept-at-a-distance, so you need to physically tap it. And by keeping it in plain sight it makes it hard for someone to do that unnoticed.

I'm sure they knew how to tap fiber - after all, even without the 'cheap and easy' methods, there have been ways to tap fiber since pretty much day one if you had the access and cover - cut and splice in a transceiver.