6 Fallacies | WiFi Network Security
October 12, 2008
No one wants to get into my WiFi network, and whether they get a free ride on the World Wide Web who cares?
Unfortunately, we live in a world where crimes and vandalism is common place, even more so when the crime can go undetected. Many hackers or disgruntled employees are merely looking to compromise someone’s systems whether or not there are huge payoffs – these vandals break in simply considering they can. Through your open WiFi network, and intentional hacker can destroy the network and every PC on the network. Imagine the cost to your organization whether a hacker launches a virus directly into your network or re-initializes the hard drives on every PC they could access.
I don’t have any urgent knowledge that anyone would want to access. Many citizens believe that their electronic knowledge is not at risk or of little value to anyone who sees it. that is dangerous thinking. With simple sniffing software, (look by the shoulder of a Wi-Fi hacker) every packet of notes you send or receive by the WiFi network can be read and stored to disk. Most users don’t realize that when they access their e-mail from a POP3 explanation by WiFi, their e-mail explanation user name and password are readable by the air. Imagine the access to personal and confidential info a hacker can have after capturing your e-mail password and having unrestricted access to your e-mail detail for months on end without being detected.
There’s no one within 300 feet of my building, and WiFi can…
Good Tool for Secure Access at WiFi Hotspots
October 12, 2008
Even whether you secure your own WiFi Network, you can still face the challenge of getting a secure network connection on a public WiFi network (WiFi hotspot).
considering it’s so easy to capture an e-mail username and password on an unsecured WiFi network (look over the shoulder of a wireless hacker, you should never connect to a public WiFi network without a secure connection
One way to effectively deal with that is to compose certain that your e-mail connection uses an SSL connection. Many e-mail providers will supply you the SSL connection ports whether you poke & prod them sufficient for the knowledge.
Another alternative is to use a personal VPN like that available from WiTopia. The personalVPN works in the background to seamlessly secure your sent and received documents via an encrypted tunnel to WiTopia’s Web gateways. Works with any and all applications including mail, instant messaging, and web surfing.
The Five Deadly Dangers of Unsecured WiFi Networks
October 12, 2008
Once hackers have access to your WiFi network, they can readily capture personal and business knowledge. There are two types of WiFi attacks. Passive attacks, where the hacker captures your network traffic, are nearly impossible to detect considering the hacker never joins your network. They can sit silently with their antenna tuned into your network and capture gigabytes of network traffic for off-line analysis at a later moment. Active attacks, where the hacker joins the network, can be the most devastating considering they can launch active attacks into the network and onto your devices on the network.
There are 5 attacks that WiFi hackers can very easily & readily perform on your wireless network with very little effort or expense. The first two are passive attacks, and the last 3 are active attacks. But invent no mistake - all of these attacks can be deadly.
Deadly Attack #1: detail and Password Capture. There are several applications that send your explanation and passwords in clear text by the network. For example, every duration a POP3 mail explanation checks for new e-mail, the explanation name & password are in the clear as part of the documents transfer. Anyone sniffing the network traffic can easily get your e-mail explanation knowledge. Once they have that info, they can access your e-mail explanation at their leisure, monitoring for personal knowledge without leaving a trace. From there, any confidential knowledge they can get from yo…
LucidLink WiFi Client Available at Download.com
October 12, 2008
Wi-Fi defense can be hard. There are many options, many settings, and a lot of techno-babble in many WiFi clients that manufacture it difficult for non-technical users to understand.
The LucidLink WiFi Client eliminates all of the clutter and only presents what you need to connect to the WiFi network. It automatically determines the WiFi shield method being used on the network and requests only the info due to connect to that network.
LucidLink WiFi Client makes it easy to access Wi-Fi networks. It can be used to connect to home networks, office networks, or public hotspots. that client is easy to install, easy to use, and it solves an array of problems Wi- Fi users face connecting to different wireless networks. The LucidLink WiFI Client automatically detects network safety measure settings, alerts users to incompatible settings and provides directions for resolving them, ensuring that users set up connectivity rather than being left to wonder what is wrong. It detects and warns against suspected safety measure problems such as the Evil Twin and potential Man-in-the-Middle safety measure Attacks. Supports networks secured with WEP, WPA-PSK, and open (unsecured) networks.
New WiFi defense Product
October 12, 2008
An interesting new WiFi protection product is now in beta checking called WiFi Login Pro. I had the opportunity to review the product a few weeks back. It is quite a intelligent WiFi safety measure solution - it supports WPA & WPA2, but rather than requiring the user to set up certificates for EAP-PEAP or EAP-TTLS, it uses the POP3 mail server to authenticate the user and let them on the network.
that WiFi security product supports up to 100 users, is cost effective ($199), and is targeted at small businesses that need the same level of WiFi protection that large corporations use without the hassle of a full blown RADIUS server.
WiFi Login Pro is actually a RADIUS server that runs on a Windows Vista, 2003, XP, or 2000 PC. Unlike the complex set up of a RADIUS server, WiFi Login Pro simplifies the set up with a straight forward wizard and allows you to use your pre-existing POP3 e-mail server to authenticate users access to the WiFi network.
WiFi Login Pro is available as a beta version right now. whether you’re interested in seeing a beta copy go to their web site at www.dazsoftware.com and go onthe download link.
How TJX goods was Stolen by a Wireless Network
October 12, 2008
The Wall Street Journal’s commentary today - How Credit-Card goods Went Out Wireless Door - is a must read composition for small and medium businesses using wireless networks. The spread explains how hackers easily broke into the wireless network, sniffed out user credentials, and soon after used those credentials to get into the corporate network (presumable by a VPN) to access millions of customer credit card and social safety measure numbers.
The exposition talks about the devastating effect that breach had on TJX and it’s customers and didn’t even mention the impact it had on TJX’s confidential internal notes, which is probably something they don’t want to talk about.
that should be a signal to action for any business using Wi-Fi. construct certain your Wi-Fi network is secure. A RADIUS server and 802.1X control that gives you control by individual access is best. At the very least, use WPA or WPA2 and assemble certain you change the encryption keys when employees leave the company.
Witopia and DAZ Software supply great tools that makes RADIUS easy for small businesses. Companies like Interlink Networks provides a higher end RADIUS server that is better suited for larger enterprises and ISPs.
Is Your Wi-Fi Network Listed on the Web?
October 12, 2008
Interested statistics from www.wigle.net where Wi-Fi hackers and and war drivers that capture Wi-Fi network knowledge and post to the Web:
Total number of networks found: over 11,280,000
Percent of networks protected with WEP: 44.0%
Percent of networks not protected (without WEP): 40.5%
Percent of networks unknown: 15.4%
Pretty scary thought - somewhere within 40% and 56% of all Wi-Fi networks have no Wi-Fi defense.
wigle.net is an interesting site. It’s worth checking out to see whether your network is on the hacker’s radar screen. They have a great interactive map that allows you to type in your physical address and zoom into all of the networks (open and secured) that have been found by war drivers in your neighborhood.
Is your unsecured network listed on the Web for everyone to see?