to other locations in the office. Additionally, it may bring cost savings to the organisation by enabling network connectivity at locations that are too difficult and costly to install physical cabling.
All wireless computer systems face security threats that can compromise its systems and services. Unlike the wired network, the intruder does not need physical access in order to pose the following security threats:
Eavesdropping. This involves attacks against the confidentiality of the data that is being transmitted across the network. In the wireless network, eavesdropping is the most significant threat because the attacker can intercept the transmission over the air from a distance away from the premise of the company.
Tampering. The attacker can modify the content of the intercepted packets from the wireless network and this results in a loss of data integrity.
Unauthorized access and spoofing. The attacker could gain access to privileged data and resources in the network by assuming the identity of a valid user. This kind of attack is known as spoofing. To overcome this attack, proper authentication and access control mechanisms need to be put up in the wireless network.
Denial of Service. In this attack, the intruder floods the network with either valid or invalid messages affecting the availability of the network resources. The attacker could also flood a receiving wireless station thereby forcing to use up its valuable battery power.
Other security threats. The other threats come from the weakness in the network administration and vulnerabilities of the wireless LAN standards, e.g. the vulnerabilities of the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), which is supported in the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard.
SECURITY GUIDELINES FOR WIRELESS LAN
The following are some of the guidelines that could help to reduce the exposure of a network to the above security threats:
The access points should be properly secured within the...