I don't want to get on too much of a kick writing about security related topics here, lest people think I am paranoid, but prompted by a recent story on Slashdot I found myself thinking about how much easier technology may be making it to sabotage corporate information systems.

The discussion is titled "Cell phone jamming on the rise" and was prompted by this recent Network World article. The article finds some favor with the idea, and after all, who among us hasn't wished at times for a convenient button to push to shut up the rude conversationalist in the theater, restaurant, or cube farm?

The technology for Jamming cell phones is small, portable, and reliable, and indications are that it is becoming more and more widely available. As it happens, I currently have a consulting engagement at an organization which lives and dies by these things (and there are, quite literally, lives in the balance... a suitable amount of redundancy is built in to the system, but the inefficiencies can be costly). A few of these devices around the office, and it would shut the place down. Probably be quite costly to resolve, as well... I can't even imagine how long it would take to figure out what the problem was, and then locating them around the place would be a whole new nightmare.

So what would happen in your office? And what if it wasn't cell phones, but Bluetooth, or wifi? Wireless technologies have been adopted rapidly, but with none of the safeguards against flooding or jamming that wired networks have evolved over the years. If it hasn't happened already, I think this may be the next frontier for both pranksters and serious malcontents at the office... time to start thinking about what you might do about it now.