Wi-Fi Security

How many of us have handheld computers? Their evolution has grown significantly, to encompass a great deal of information, databases, and confidential documents. Today, most handheld computers can support an endless supply of flash memory that can hold hundreds of ... [full story]

Conclusion: Ensuring “Secure”Access Control In order to maintain secure access control of your wireless network, you need to think proactively about the deployment of your wireless products. Think about the security functionality and the specific features that are important to ... [full story]

IP addresses are a common way for a hacker to attack your network. It is imperative that you make certain that the ad hoc mode has been disabled in your WLAN, since it constitutes a risk that an unauthorized user ... [full story]

The laptop computer is the best and worst device you could possibly own, at least from a security perspective. It is the best device in terms of sheer power and portability. However, it is the worst device because it can ... [full story]

Most PDA users never really take into consideration how vulnerable their mobile device is when left in the sync cradle at the desk or workstation. It is a simple matter for someone to come right into your office or cubicle, ... [full story]

Smart cards are often an effective means of adding enhanced protection to your wireless laptop, though they add another layer of complexity at the same time. When you use a smart card in combination with authentication techniques that rely on ... [full story]

Another excellent way of adding protection to your WLAN is to set up your laptop so that it must identify its legitimate user correctly before the machine will turn on or allow any access to protected network resources. These hardware ... [full story]

A good defense is having a knowledgeable offense. This means that you must look at every computing device, printing device, and networked storage resource device on your network as a potential way in which hackers can breach your system and ... [full story]

Wireless laptop users can leave a connected computer unattended whileon the road or within their offices. Laptops are often confiscated and leftas open portals at airports and other public places. This chapterdescribes how 802.11b is built into many laptops and ... [full story]

The question that you really need to answer is: how secure is all that data residing on your PDA? PDAs are now capable of containing such confidential information. This includes:
Mission-critical work data
Personal information
Contact lists
Financial ... [full story]

It is easy for a hacker to use the HotSync operation to steal your data, network settings, and passwords. It is just as easy (if not easier) to steal information from your PDA by only having physical access to it ... [full story]

There are a number of steps you can take to administer your security in the most effective manner possible. You can use the steps outlined here as a reference guide to implement the necessary safeguards to ensure that your wireless ... [full story]

This chapter describes how the evolution of wireless applications willgenerate an entirely new set of security issues, making users prone toover-the-air hacker attacks. As wireless devices are gaining moremomentum from Palm-, PocketPC-, and PDA-enabled telephones,802.11b is commonly built into these ... [full story]

Hackers are most interested in getting one of your employees’ laptops because it is easy to steal and is already enabled on your internal access control list (ACL). One of the problems with just trying to access your WLAN is ... [full story]

You may choose to implement alternative forms of authentication for your WLAN including Kerberos or RADIUS. If you rely on the protection capabilities of your wireless equipment, then you will have enormous difficulty in finding answers. Don’t depend on ... [full story]

Hackers look for ways to access the management or administration pages of access points so they can enable the DHCP server and block out any ACL that might be preventing them from logging into your network. One of the ways ... [full story]

You can take special steps to protect yourself against the possibility of any wireless laptop being used against you. You need to implement encryption to limit the eavesdropping attempts against your network communications. Some companies use a special VPN link ... [full story]

One of the best ways to make certain that you control access to yourcomputers is to implement mechanisms that control access to the physicalareas of your corporate facilities. You should also keep records andrestrict access to any sensitive areas within ... [full story]

There are a number of practical steps you can take to ensure control of who accesses your WLAN. It is important to make certain that you create and maintain a secure 802.11 wireless LAN. When you implement a set of ... [full story]

The platform-specific mechanisms within Windows XP support the following types of methods:
Username/password
EAP/MD5 authentication methods
PKI-founded EAP-TLS The EAP/MD5 was mainly created to function with EAP, and its use is not usually good for a number of ... [full story]

The problem with most access control schemes is the lack of attentivenessby users after they have logged in. This chapter explains commonuser mistakes in Windows and Macintosh computing environments thatopen up security holes in their workstations, thus allowing anyone togain ... [full story]

The 802.11 standard specifies an encapsulation technique that permits the transmission of EAP packets between both the “supplicant” and “authenticator” within your wireless network. EAP offers a standard means for supporting extra authentication methods within the PPP protocol. EAP supports ... [full story]

Conclusion: Limiting Your Vulnerabilities Remember that no matter what device is connected to your network, right out of the box there are few or no security features enabled by default. This is a fact for just about everything on ... [full story]

There are some simple but effective measures you can take to preventsomeone from accessing your network without your permission. Most ofthe wireless routers on the market allow you to configure an internalfirewall to keep any open port on your machine ... [full story]

Many of the printers released today have built-in Web servers that allow for easy remote configuration from virtually anywhere within the network. They are advantageous configurable entities, but present a risk of unauthorized users who gain access to this device. ... [full story]

Wireless 802.11b is the most commonly used wireless LAN protocol. This type of technology uses direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) to produce bitstreams that are sent in the 2.45-GHz ISM band. Speed varies for this technology depending on how good ... [full story]

Wireless LANs running either 802.11b or Bluetooth have the advantage of being able to work from virtually anywhere; however, both these technologies depend on open communication from point to point. Ad hoc networks represent two different computers connecting by one ... [full story]

Mobile PDA devices are inherently insecure, a fact easily recognizable from the lack of any realistic security standard. An effective method of ensuring mobile device security is to attempt to build an enforceable mandatory access control system to make certain ... [full story]

Linux Boxes PCs configured with Linux have the same type of flexibility as Mac OS X or Windows for adding network printers. Linux can operate seamlessly with an 802.11b card. Not only can it access all the same network printers, ... [full story]

Wireless phones have become so popular that they have largely mergedwith personal digital assistant (PDA) devices. Now, a mobile employee hasessentially a mini-computer that can be used to access e-mail, Web pages,and even information from your corporate database anywhere and ... [full story]

When you think of your wireless network, you must consider severaloptions. It is an incredible convenience to be able to establish a LAN wirelessly, but remember that specific trivial measures should be taketo secure your network.When you set up your ... [full story]

Make certain you take all necessary measures to ensure that only thosepeople authorized to access your network have true access during regularbusiness hours. You can look to the log activity to determine if there is anoverload of network access that ... [full story]