Physical Security

When it came to security for your wired network, physical security was
the most important part of making certain that hackers could not pose
as legitimate employees, enter your corporate facilities, and use “sniffer”
tools to acquire data from the actual wires in your network. With the
advent of wireless networks, physical security was not considered as critical as it was when dealing only with wired networks, because the
person did not need to enter your facilities to attempt to breach your
access safeguards.

The truth is that physical security is just as important with WLANs
as it is with wired LANs. This level of security is the most basic step of
making certain wired or wireless equipment is configured so that it permits
incoming wireless access only from authorized users who are
meant to use the network.

Physical security measures are vital because they contain important
methods making certain you have the necessary:


Identification protocols

Intrusion detection

Access controls

Logging facilities (so you know who accesses your network and when)


Even wireless networks must support physical access controls so that
not just anyone can waltz into your facility and start reconfiguring your
devices. Identification devices include:


Card readers

Badges

Photo IDs

Biometric identity devices