Bluetooth

Here is some information I gathered about bluetooth wireless networking.

Definition: Bluetooth is a specification for the use of low-power radio communications to wirelessly link phones, computers and other network devices over short distances. The name Bluetooth is borrowed from Harald Bluetooth, a king in Denmark more than 1,000 years ago.
Bluetooth technology was designed primarily to support simple wireless networking of personal consumer devices and peripherals, including cell phones, PDAs, and wireless headsets. Wireless signals transmitted with Bluetooth cover short distances, typically up to 30 feet (10 meters). Bluetooth devices generally communicate at less than 1 Mbps.
Bluetooth networks feature a dynamic topology called a piconet or PAN. Piconets contain a minimum of two and a maximum of eight Bluetooth peer devices. Devices communicate using protocols that are part of the Bluetooth Specification. Definitions for multiple versions of the Bluetooth specification exist including versions 1.1, 1.2 and 2.0.
Although the Bluetooth standard utilizes the same 2.4 Ghz range as 802.11b and 802.11g, Bluetooth technology is not a suitable Wi-Fi replacement. Compared to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth networking is much slower, a bit more limited in range, and supports many fewer devices.
As is true for Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies today, concerns with Bluetooth technology include security and interoperability with other networking standards. Bluetooth was ratified as IEEE 802.15.1.



I thought it was interesting that it uses a standard similar to the one we learned in class (IEEE...) and that concerns with Bluetooth include security and interoperability. So I looked up the standards and if you want to check out this super long document here it is.

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-48/NIST_SP_800-48.pdf



After doing this I went to youtube... and oh buddy is it easy to hack bluetooth phones. There are a million videos and programs available to download so that you can hack someone's phone. You can make calls, send texts, and turn off their phone.

Here are two videos I found interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WRLtBl-lqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlTEIYGk3Ro

What do you guys think? I don't have bluetooth on my phone but I do have it on my computer. I never use it for anything, so I wonder if people can connect to my computer in the same way the phones are being hacked.

-Cassie