May - 2003 issue > Cover Feature

By Sandeep Singhal

THE ENTERPRISE OF THE FUTURE IS ONE IN WHICH every employee will be a mobile user and where every laptop and handheld device is wireless. But as today's companies extend their wireless capabilities across their entire enterprise, several issues come to the forefront, not the least of which is the security of their proprietary data. Despite the complexity of the problem, an enterprise can undertake some relatively simple measures to thwart hackers and maintain the integrity of their wireless network.

Avoid Factory Default SSIDs
Wireless LAN "war drivers" regularly canvass business areas armed only with sniffing equipment such as a laptop, a wireless access card and other tools that are readily available on the Internet. But the practice of "war chalking" takes this concept to another level by using physical demarcations to expose the existence of access points, thus exploiting them not only for their own use, but publicizing holes for others to take advantage as well. One means of avoiding these types of attacks is to avoid advertising your WLAN's very existence.

Discovery of the WLAN itself is the first step to a successful hack, but there are several measures that can be taken to make life difficult for the casual hacker. The first of these involves the SSID's factory default. SSID is short for Service Set Identifier, a 32-character unique identifier attached to the header of packets sent over a WLAN that acts as a password when a mobile device tries to connect to the BSS. Every access point and all devices attempting to connect to a specific WLAN must use the same SSID. Because an SSID can be sniffed in plain text from a packet, it should be changed from the factory default so as to avoid easy detection. Another means of thwarting war drivers and chalkers is by controlling your signal as much as possible.

The less you leak into insecure areas, the more difficult the hack. If possible, adjust access point antennae and power levels to avoid signal leakage to areas where coverage is neither required nor desirable.

Deploy Device-Independent Authentication

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