Vendor Trials

Some companies originally placed severe bans on the use of any wireless
LAN equipment because there was so much risk associated with using
these devices. When WLAN equipment was first produced, there were so
many problems that almost anyone could gain access; these devices
become the least secure of any networking hardware. Most of these
problems were due to malfunctions in WLAN vendor trials.

The result of these problems was that most retailers who were using
Wi-Fi technology were forced to deactivate their WLANs because transaction
data and credit card information were being stolen. Hackers only
needed an active wireless device enabled just outside the perimeter of a
retail store equipped with a WLAN. Users who were testing WLAN equipment
outside these stores were intercepting confidential information!
The problem was the result of retailers who used point-of-sale data
for both their pricing and inventory database programs. The information
sent in these systems was not encrypted; it was easily intercepted by
hackers who could then sell and distributed confidential information
without fear of being discovered.

It is very important to note that WEP, once believed to be the wireless
equivalent standard of privacy in a wired network, is now considered
very insecure. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley discovered
a number of security vulnerabilities in algorithms upon which
WEP was based.

The only way in which you can secure WEP is to use protocols such as RADIUS, VPN, SSL, and IPSec.

The idea is to add levels of security by having the software at each
end of the wireless connection encrypt your data channels using its own
specific algorithm. If you depend on the hardware WEP encryption built
into your Wi-Fi equipment you are leaving yourself vulnerable to attack.
But by using software level encryption, someone who does try to eavesdrop
on your connection will not be able to make sense of your information
sent in transit.