This paper deals with the impact of wireless vulnerabilities on businesses and organizations which require its use for their daily jobs. Many companies use wireless to carry out their chores and which takes up a large part of their business. It is indeed important to secure the company’s databases and all other important data from illegal access by their contemporaries.
The number of wireless users has significantly increased from a few million to around 40 million in recent years. The paper will enlist the various impacts faced by the companies which use wireless communications.
Today’s markets have witnessed a huge augmentation in the usage of wireless networks. These networks have an ever-increasing demand in the market since they provide one of the best means to transfer data for commercial and other business purposes. The number of users of wireless has increased from a few million to a staggering 40 million. And are yet to increase, even more, looking at the amount of the ever-increasing demands of the upcoming firms.
Wireless communication is even preferred to the wired systems, which are also widely used. But, wired networks are not always secured. It is very difficult to attain complete security in the case of wired systems. Not only that, even some wireless networks don’t guarantee full security against external threats. There are instances where the firms or companies suffer in their businesses due to the interference of some undesired sources.
In the case of LANs, security is prevalent only when the distance is small enough to provide certain security and efficiency. Not only this, in the case of wireless networks, it is still a problem of assigning a separate and unique identity to all the users of the network. Every user must have an authentic identity. Also, it is a challenge regarding the use of wireless networks.
The perimeter covered by the radio waves is a question. The coverage given by the radio waves cannot be determined easily. Not only this, the coverage is attenuated by the way the building is designed. The beams, heavily coated walls, and other structures stop the radio waves from entering the building, thus hampering the use of wireless technology and reducing efficiency.
A very dangerous tendency of wireless LANs is that it sometimes propagates the data in outer space, as a result of which, the important information and data travel into space which can be intercepted by illegal users. This information can hence be used as a counterattack on the firms and companies, ruining their businesses in the longer run.
Besides that, one more problem is that, any unauthorized user can very easily, just with some effort, can easily intrude the network and can intercept and exploit the information for their use and profit.
Another main disadvantage of wireless LANs is that their speed is a matter of concern. The speed of the wireless LANs is even slower than that of 100Base T Fast Ethernet.
The basic points to be kept in mind regarding the usage of wireless LANs are as follows-
- Availability
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Authenticity
Availability means that there must be protection against DoS, i.e. denial of service. Whenever one wants to read or use the data or the information, he must be able to do so without any problems whatsoever.
Confidentiality pertains to the security that the data cannot be read by any outsider. The data that is transmitted to the receiver must be properly encrypted and secured. It should be such that no unauthorized user can intercept the data which is vital for the company.
Integrity means that the data should be safe from unnecessary modification and changes that might completely change the actual information contained in the message. Also, there should not be any transmission errors.
Authenticity means that the sender of the data or the information must be an authorized user. It should not be so, that another unauthorized user impersonates or masquerades himself, and hence steal the information.
Now, the basic difference between wired and wireless networks is that the wired networks, as their name suggests, make use of wires or in other words, use a physical medium to propagate data. Whereas, wireless networks don’t use any physical medium.
Next, wireless mediums use radio waves to send and receive data. They use modulation techniques known as spread spectrum. This method of modulation technique is more secure since it is tolerant enough to handle the interferences from the narrow-band signals.
It is important to note that wireless networks, as a direct result of the type of modulation they employ, are private key systems. All stations on a given network share a common key. This facilitates key distribution and management but causes security problems (Stanley Richard, Wireless LAN Risks and Vulnerabilities, 3).
The next issue with wireless networks is that there is no flexibility regarding the interoperability of these networks. The end-user equipment prices, if reduced, will greatly increase the interoperability between these networks.
Apart from these problems that are posed by the wireless networks, there are another set of risks also that need to be checked. There is a problem of data integrity, as explained above, in wireless networks. Now, this problem of integrity is solved by a method known as the Cyclic Redundancy Check. A cryptography check should also be incorporated to check the encrypted messages.
All these discussions have been made concerning the LAN standard, 802.11 series. But, these risks which have been discussed can be the same for other types of LAN standards. Only how these threats have to be dealt with are different for different LAN standards. Otherwise, the threats and difficulties faced are the same.
Next, for wireless networks to be secure there has to be a technology known as WEP or wired equivalent privacy. That means the techniques which the WEPs use, have to be incorporated in the wireless LANs too. But, a major problem and a very shocking one is that the WEPs themselves are not completely flawless. They have many loopholes.
Those networks which don’t have WEPs are subject to easy interception by third parties. The unauthorized users can very easily locate the access point and get started. WEP itself is very much insecure. Also, the keys that the WEP technique uses to encrypt its data packets, is a very weak key. Thus, it can easily be broken in a matter of a few minutes.
As if these findings were not troubling enough, the WEP password scheme has also been found to be flawed, with the result that an intruder can gain access to some WEP-protected networks in as little as 30 seconds (Lemos Robert, Wireless networks wide open to hackers). WEP alone cannot be trusted to perform the combined functions of Integrity, Confidentiality, etc all alone.
If we use more methods to ensure privacy, we might not attain the required goal; instead, it might make the system more complex and equally more prone to outer attacks. One cannot hope to attain 100 percent security or privacy. But, we try to attain as many of these requirements as possible to make the transference of valuable data and information worthwhile.
Many people have tried using wired LAN to connect to other computers without the owner of that computer knowing. But, in the case of wireless networks, it is difficult to do so. So, in other words, WEP has proved to be a very useful tool, if not the best one ever.
To maintain data integrity, hash functions are used apart from CRC. In the CRC algorithm, it is easy to construct a different data stream without changing the end CRC result. The receiver would not know that the data has been changed. But, in the case of Hash Functions, it is difficult to do so since it is difficult to know the hash value of dome data which would give some other data in return.
Wireless LANs, unlike cellular networks, have a weak authentication protocol. As a result, it becomes very easy to intercept data and change the information in the case of wireless networks. It is necessary to increase the security in these networks since they are widely used. One of the major problems in the case of wireless networks is that the NIC keeps on broadcasting the IP address of its system to other computers in the vicinity. Now, if a third party wants to use the system or gather information, it just has to be in the vicinity and it can easily access the required data. Also, using antennas, one can catch the wireless frequency and result in interception and losing data integrity.
By understanding and dealing properly with the risks and threats unique to the wireless domain, a wireless LAN can be a valuable, and appropriately secure, addition to a wired enterprise network (Stanley Richard, Wireless LAN Risks and Vulnerabilities, 13).
References
Lemos Robert (2001). Wireless Networks Wide Open to Hackers. Web.
Stanley Richard (2002). Wireless LAN Risks and Vulnerabilities. Web.