Wireless Worries

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Do you have a wireless network at home or in the office? If your answer is yes, then I ask another question, How good is the wireless security? Wireless makes all of our lives very easy, but if your security is not right, it can make your life a mess.

Did you know that most wireless routers and access points ship with no wireless security enabled by default? Did you also know that there are tons of lists floating around the Internet with default user names and passwords for the administrative login to your wireless device? Below I will explain the dangers of having weak or no wireless security.

An attacker can connect up to 1000 feet from your home or office, and join the network. Once this happens, there are many things he/she can do to obtain your information. Clone the MAC or physical address of your wireless router, and intercept all of your information your are sending to the Internet, or other users on the same network as you. Find out your local computer IP address and enumerate your system, potentially compromising your system, which can lead to many different attacks. Such attacks could be; Installation of: Trojans – Allowing remote control of your computer by an attacker Virus – Allowing an attacker to manipulate your files Spyware/adware Allowing the attacker to profit off of your Internet connection Key Logger – Allowing an attacker to catch and send them every single key stroke you make on your machine

All of the above listed items and more can lead to the leaking of your personal data, and possibly a compromise of your identity (ID Theft). AS you can see by now, it should be clear that without the proper knowledge of how wireless security works, you are subject to these attacks.

So Shaun, You have just made me very scared, what do I do now?

Well, wireless is never 100% safe, no matter what anyone says. The only way to ensure that you are 100% protected from wireless security breaches, is to get rid of wireless period lol. Even the most advanced wireless encryption has been compromised, however there are ways you can secure the network to further aide in the protection of this problem.

Configure the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server of the LAN (Local Area Network) to only allow a certain amount of Hosts, or IP addresses to be handed out to clients on the network. Let's say you have 2 computers that always stay on, no matter what, You can limit the IP's being handed out to be only 2.

Configure wpa2 with TKIP or AES protection. This will make it a lot harder for an attacker to compromise the wireless network, however it is not 100% effective, as it can still be broken.

MAC (Media Access Control) filtering. The MAC address is the physical address of each computer. Each MAC address is different, and there are not 2 MAC addresses alike. This will allow you to only allow a certain MAC address of a computer to connect to certain aspects of the network. However this is not 100% safe either, as mentioned earlier, a Machines MAC address can easily be cloned.

Turn off SSID Broadcasting. The SSID or ESSID is the name of your wireless device. This broadcasts the name, so clients can Find it. This may cause some issues with in-experienced users not being able to connect to the network.

As you can see, there are many attacks, and not so many fixes for them. However with the more protections you put in place, the more aggravating it can be for an attacker, thus perhaps making them think that the network is protected and monitored by someone who knows what they are doing. This will drive away most attackers.

As always, it is in your best interest to hire a Professional who knows what it takes when it comes to technology and especially security. The costs shouldn't be much, as it usually takes about 1 hour to ensure these above mentioned practices are put into play, and all wireless communications resume with no troubles.

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