This paper presents the security risks inherit in wireless networks and explores the technical, functional and return on investment requirements needed for a monitoring solution for companies looking to protect and fortify their wireless networks from rogue wireless devices.
White Paper Best Practices for Hunting Down & Terminating Rogue Wireless LANs (WLANs) This paper provides an overview of the different types of rogue wireless LANs, risks faced by due to their proliferation and multiple approaches to detecting and mitigating rogue devices and networks. Enterprises that delay in deploying 802.11 wireless strong signal, it may connect with the new access LANs are facing increasing risks of employees point even if the AP is the laptop of an intruder in the installing their own rogue wireless LANs to the parking lot. enterprise network. Driven by the desire for mobility and fueled by the decreasing prices of wireless LAN Any wireless access point attached to a wired hardware, these employees circumvent an network essentially broadcasts an Ethernet enterprise's investment in IT security by plugging a connection and is a ramp to the entire enterprise $60 wireless LAN access point into an Ethernet jack network. Layer 1 and Layer 2 of a network is and connecting a $50 wireless access card to a typically protected by the CAT5 wire within a station. building in a traditional wired network but is exposed in a wireless LAN. These rogue wireless LANs are easy to install and provide the mobility that employees seek. However, Without proper security measures for authentication the end result is a wide-open entry point to the and encryption, any laptop with a wireless card can greater enterprise network. A rogue wireless LAN connect with the network or stealthily eavesdrop on effectively extends an Ethernet connection to anyone all network traffic across that access point from any inside and outside the building. Enterprises that have area within the colored areas on the map. decided not to deploy wireless LANs must first set a policy banning employees from installing their own Most rogue wireless LANs are deployed with networks and then determine how to enforce that consumer-grade hardware in defaults settings that policy. lack basic security measures of encryption, personalized Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs), and This paper provides an overview of risks Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering. organizations are facing due to proliferation of rogue However, even these basic steps of wireless LAN wireless LANs and describes multiple approaches to security provided by consumer-grade vendors are not detecting and terminating rogue networks. sufficient to secure enterprise wireless LANs, which require encryption beyond WEP, additional access
control filtering, intrusion detection, and 24x7 To understand the risks of rogue wireless LANs, one monitoring. must first understand the security vulnerabilities of all wireless LANs. Wireless LANs face all of the
security challenges of any wired networks in addition Just as employees first brought personal computers to to the new risks introduced by the wireless medium the office in the 1980s for their many benefits, that connects stations and access points. "Many Gartner clients have reported the First the medium in which a wireless LAN operates is discovery of "rogue" wireless LAN access points the air. Additionally, wireless devices self deploy that users had set up in the enterprise's and have the capability to connect to strangers. Due buildings. We know of several instances in to the growth of wireless LAN-enabled laptops and which corporate intranets were publicly the increasingly wireless-friendly Windows XP exposed - in locations with public access and Operating System, laptops in the default setting co-located with competitors - by wireless LAN automatically search for an access point in which to access points hidden by clever users." connect. Lastly, wireless devices are transient in the - Gartner way they connect. If a wireless device picks up a
employees are installing their own wireless LANs to with neighboring networks and ad-hoc, peer-to-peer corporate networks when IT departments are slow to networks. adopt the new technology. Soft Access Points While hardware APs have been the focus of security Even enterprises that are deplo... [download for more]
