Security Vulnerability Assessment

Administrative duties are often overwhelming when you have to worry
about security for all your employees who are moving data across a wireless
network. There are a number of wireless network analysis sniffer tools
to help you determine the extent of your wireless network coverage. However,
fraudulent access points designed to capture traffic or facilitate unauthorized
access usually represent the most dangerous breed of hacker.
The best offense is a good defense, and you can effectively defend
yourself against fraudulent access points by exercising extreme caution
when implementing a WLAN in your corporate environment.

Consider one WLAN implementation that allows workers to use their
wireless workstations anywhere within the limits of the corporate facilities.
Prior to deployment, your security personnel (or third-party consultant)
will execute a security risk assessment to determine what vulnerabilities
exist within your proposed wireless infrastructure. The idea
is to have your security experts (white hat hackers) try to exploit these
vulnerabilities in an effort to determine your exact risk when running
your WLAN and how any problems or security lapses will affect your
organization.

The administrator now has the advantage of deploying your wireless
infrastructure more effectively after assessing your risk and deciding if
that risk is greater than the benefits offered by a WLAN. The benefit is
that understanding these problems beforehand will allow you to reduce
your overall risk before you implement your WLAN. This knowledge
allows you to administer and utilize your wireless resources far more
effectively, so that you can make certain you have the greatest possible
level of security protection from the design to the deployment phases of
your wireless network.