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column on 802 process in relation to 802.11 security




Here is an interesting article on 802.11 security:
	http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0103.html#10

The 802.16 MAC Chair, Carl Eklund, just sent me the pointer.

The interesting part is not so much the security issues but the claim 
is that 802.11 was not properly peer-reviewed and that this is why 
problems were not discovered. It says:

"Protocols designed in secret, or by closed committees, are the 
worst. The 802.11 process was technically open, but in practice it 
was closed. Anyone could go to the committee meanings, if they wanted 
to pony up the airfare and registration fee and spend their time 
trying to decipher the 802.11 jargon. However, you couldn't just grab 
the standard or read about the cryptography on the net. There was no 
free, generally available, public information."

I don't think it's accurate to say of 802.11 that "in practice it was 
closed". Still, I continue to worry that limiting the availability of 
our drafts is hurting us. The standards distribution agreement with 
IEEE-SA does not help in this regard. Maybe some creative thinking 
can address the issue.

Roger