Who Stole the Cookie
As with all new technologies, no matter how unrelated to the subject they may seem, someone will bring up the topic of security. In this case, security is a very valid concern. However, many steps are being taken to make this connection secure. First of all, the Bluetooth devices are spread spectrum. They are using random hops from band to band, at a rate of 1600 hops per second, which makes it somewhat more difficult to communicate with a device that “doesn’t want to talk to you”, so to speak. Also, the technology allows for personal identification numbers, which go into 128-bit keys on the link, authenticated in either one or both directions. After the link is verified by means of the PIN, the connection itself can be encrypted up to 128-bits, in 8-bit increments, with the devices negotiating to find the smallest common key length.
We’ve Got Time
Estimates by the Bluetooth SIG say that there will be in the hundreds of millions of devices that are Bluetooth enabled by 2002. This is not necessarily a conservative estimate, but I can see it being easily attained, what with the over 1300 manufacturers being part of the group intending to manufacture Bluetooth enabled devices. With such a large influx of these devices, it seems reasonable that there is plenty of time to evaluate the actual benefits of this technology, as real-world examples will show…in time.
Conclusionary Conclusion
I guess the most important thing we learned here is that Bluetooth, son of Gorm the Old, was a Viking king. It is still beyond me how he is related to wireless local area networking, but apparently conquering neighboring nations with an army of Vikings, and dying by being shot with an arrow by a former compatriot is in some way connected with using your cell phone to wirelessly connect your laptop to the internet, where you can find out more about Bluetooth.
Lots of info on Bluetooth specifications available at http://www.bluetooth.com.
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