Concast & Dial Up LAN communications - Security Exploit

[eNathan]

Concast & Dial Up LAN communications -- Security Exploit

While I was switching ISP's earlier today (from Comcast to DLS) the DSL representative told me of some sort of a security hole in Comcasts service. She said that Comcast and Dial up are on some sort of a LAN (In your physical neighborhood), and that you all share the same bandwidth in that area. Hence, h4ckers can utilize this to hack into your computer.

Is this done through packet sniffing? If so, how is it done and how can I protect myself from it?

 

[eNathan]

wow...nothingness

 

[Evo]

While I was switching ISP's earlier today (from Comcast to DLS) the DSL representative told me of some sort of a security hole in Comcasts service. She said that Comcast and Dial up are on some sort of a LAN (In your physical neighborhood), and that you all share the same bandwidth in that area. Hence, h4ckers can utilize this to hack into your computer.

Being on cable internet is like sharing a LAN with everyone else in your neighborhood. She was wrong about dial up though. The issue of security with cable is not as bad now because cable companies are providing more security with the newer cable modems. It is still an issue though.

"Cable modem service uses a shared cable line to provide service to an entire neighborhood. Essentially, all cable customers in the region belong to the same local area network (LAN). Without any security measures in place, anybody in the neighborhood might technically be able to click on their Windows Network Neighborhood icon and actually see the computer names and addresses of their neighbors on the service. If a customer enables file sharing on any drives, neighbors could even download copies of their data!

Although some cable customers encountered this problem in the past, many providers avoid this problem today by bundling security features in the cable modem hardware. In particular, basic network firewall capabilities will prevent files from being viewed or downloaded. Most cable modems today also implement the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS). DOCSIS includes support for cable network security features including authentication and packet filtering [3]. "

Here is a good article on cable vs DSL.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/l/aa111200a.htm

 

[Pyrrhus]

To get the full scope about DSL variants.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dsldigitalsubscriberline/l/bldef_vdsl.htm