The advantages to wireless networks and resulting applications and devices are numerous, ranging from business tools to networks reaching community centres in rural areas. One of the advantages of wireless networks is that by their very nature they have the ability to pass through walls and doors, thereby providing coverage beyond the normal reach of a wired network - but this is also one of the reasons why, in the digital age, they are open to attack.
So said Gary Sweidan, operations director of premier Internet service provider (ISP), DataPro.
"When securing a network, people often think in terms of the traditional security sense, like if they are securing a building, office park, or campus. While the wireless network has the ability of passing through obstacles, this very strength, or advantage, is also a key weakness. Furthermore, if one tries to secure a wireless network by using the methods used with wired networks you are opening the network up to the risk of some serious vulnerabilities. The use of physical barriers to protect and restrict a network`s vulnerability to a potential attack by restricting access to users within a normal network environment are not that effective in the wireless world."
Sweidan said that most wireless networks come with an industry-standard built-in solution called IEEE 802.11. The problem with this solution is that it does, unfortunately, suffer from a number of vulnerabilities.
Protection is a matter of awareness. "In order to avoid network intrusion," said Sweidan, "a certain level of user authentication needs to be established so that users can make sure they are connected to a genuine service and not a spoof, or rogue, service. They also need to be protected from any fraudulent requests for personal information such as their user name, password or credit card details.
"Since the Internet has been around, network vulnerabilities have been with us. This is nothing new. This is not a new threat - and it must not be `hyped` out of all proportion. Most operators of wired networks clearly recognise the utter importance of protecting their networks and also recognise the need of using firewalls to ensure that only properly authorised access is possible from outside their protected areas.
"But it must be noted that, with the implementation of any wireless device, each access point and wireless client device needs to be individually protected as they are backdoors, or worm holes, that allow hackers to gain entry. These vulnerable points need to be carefully watched and safeguarded - and this is now generally done through a local firewall application."
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