And see your customer records from the street. I can change your company’s
financial data from the park across the street. I can stop your mission critical
network in its tracks. If someone with malicious intent could do any one of these
it would pose a very real threat to your business. Are these nightmares or reality?
With today’s wireless technology all are very real risks.
Wireless networking will deliver very large gains in productivity and efficiency
through increased mobility and network cost savings. However, while access to
the wired network can be controlled by physical boundaries – the walls
of your building – wireless signals cannot. Your traditional security doesn’t
work when signals from your network inside the firewall are broadcast to the
outside world.
In a survey of 100 companies by leading wireless security experts Red-M, reported
in June 2004, 80% of corporate networks were accessible from outside the building,
using common computer equipment. It was also possible to read internal email
from the car park in 33% of cases.
If you think you don’t have wireless, think again. Nearly every laptop
sold today has wireless capability. Employees who use wireless at home are bringing
their own access points – now less than £60 - to work, introducing
rogue wireless activity into companies that have no planned wireless network.
The solution is to take control of your air space – whether you have planned
wireless today or not. A comprehensive approach to policing the wireless infrastructure
should include:
Setting and enforcing wireless LAN (WLAN) policies
Monitoring authorized and rogue access points
Detecting intrusions
Identifying unapproved networks and connections
Locating incorrect configurations that can lead to new threats
Understanding and managing wireless network performance
After you’ve set a policy you need to monitor wireless activity in your
environment so you can enforce it. You can take several approaches to monitoring:
periodic sweeps of your building with a handheld device, occasional scans using
your wireless network, if you have one, or a dedicated wireless intrusion detection
system. Analysts Gartner Group recently advised that the best approach is a vendor-independent
dedicated sensor system, monitoring 24x7. After all, you wouldn’t have
the fire brigade inspect for a fire once a month, or turn your fire alarm on
part time.
Red-M: Securing your network in the wireless world.
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