Data Privacy
Wi-Fi networks have a number of issues when it comes to dealing with
data privacy. Wired Ethernetworks do not have as many data privacy
issues due to the inherently secure nature of the lines that carry data.
You must be physically in contact with the wired network to acquire
information, which is not the case in the Wi-Fi world.
Privacy becomes a serious issue when an unauthorized user gains
access to something as simple as text e-mail. That person could use
unauthorized access either to erase or to alter the data in a message just
by connecting through the wireless network. This action would leave not
one, but all e-mail suspect; corporate information would lose any trust
relationship with customers, employees, and executive staff. Since email
is a cornerstone of doing business today, no information would be
deemed safe for any business task.
There are a number of “active attacks” described earlier in this chapter
that demonstrate how the security functionality within the 802.11
standard does not offer a sufficiently secure means of maintaining data confidentiality. The primary reason for this type of problem is that the
WEP means of encryption is only a straightforward linear cyclic redundancy
check (CRC) mechanism which can be easily fooled under an
attack where the message and cryptography checking methods are
altered. Authentication records and hash mechanisms can be fooled,
making the user think the message was transmitted without being
breached, when in reality the entire text of the message could have been
changed.
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