14 DAY TRIAL // Tests for hardening user security against tracking them by the MAC addresses they use recorded promising results for creating a standard, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) announces.
MAC addresses are unique identifiers of network interfaces in computer systems and are relayed when connecting to a network; therefore, they can be used via passive observation to track a user as they connect to WiFi spots based on the IEEE 802.11 standard.
MAC randomization already exists, but not in a standard
Three experiments have been carried out, one in November 2014 and two in March 2015, all of them showing that MAC addresses of devices in a network can be randomized successfully.
The first test was conducted on an isolated network, with clients running scripts for MAC (media access control) randomization. Preliminary results showed that the chances of two MACs to be on the same network were negligible.
However, the data collected provided deeper insight that helped understand other practical implications and allow the sufficient fine tuning required by a standard.
The feature exists for some time for Linux, Windows, OS X, iOS and Android, but currently it is not included in IEEE’s 802 standards.
Anti-tracking protection soon to be a standard
Juan Carlos Zuniga, Chair of the IEEE 802 Privacy Executive Committee Study Group, said on Wednesday that the mobile trials carried out showed that users can benefit from better protection against privacy risks and enabled further studies for the technical community to strengthen Internet privacy and security for all users.
“The ability of end-users and organizations to protect the privacy of their presence and communications from passive observation is an important component of IETF and IEEE 802 efforts. Successful trials of MAC address privacy implementations helps address a key problem with the visibility of Layer-2 identifiers on shared local area networks,” said Joel Jaeggli, IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) Operations and Management Area Director.