Are Wireless Networks Secure?

Organisations are eager to migrate to wireless LANs (WLANs). Users are clamouring for WLAN access because it allows them to access their network and the Internet from anywhere in the workplace, without having to "plug in". Administrators are attracted to WLANs because they're easier to install (no cable to pull through walls and ceilings), they're flexible (they can be installed in places that wired LANs cannot, and do not require rewiring when seating or office plans change), and, in part owing to this flexibility, they're less expensive to maintain over the long-term. But the chief concern in migrating to WLAN access is security.

No computer network is completely secure. It's always theoretically possible for eavesdroppers to "snoop" the traffic on any network and it's possible to add unwanted traffic as well. So the question here is really, is it secure enough?

Many hotspot owners implement security features like 128-bit WEP and WPA that can scramble or "encrypt" network traffic so that its contents can't easily deciphered by snoopers. Likewise, wireless routers and access points (APs) incorporate acess control features such as MAC address filtering that deny network requests from unwanted clients. In some countries federal regulations have been imposed on wireless networks in public locations. This makes it necessary for WiFi hotspot owners to implement security measures for their networks as well as log information regarding their subscribers and usage. As it turned out, first-generation implementations of WEP did not provide this level of security. In fact, numerous published reports was easily cracked, seriously breaching the privacy of any wireless data transmission.

802.1X is a next-generation draft of IEEE WLAN specifications and protocols written to address the security and management pitfalls of 802.11b. The 802.1X protocol provides sub protocols and methods for better protecting authentication and data transmission.Organisations which have deferred migrating to WLANs because of security concerns can now safely take advantage of the benefits of WLAN technology by implementing 802.1X WLANs which implement advanced security techniques and which are managed by a RADIUS server.

More on 802.1X in our next post!