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Your boss has a nifty little wireless network at home. It was inexpensive, and he was able to set it up by himself over a weekend. He’s amazed by the convenience of sharing a broadband connection and a color printer between three computers spread throughout the house, so he wants a similar wireless setup in the office. He figures it shouldn’t take more than a day or two to get up and running.

What the boss doesn’t realize is that because he never bothered to secure his network, it can be hacked by anybody with a laptop and a few minutes to kill. That’s not a serious threat to his daughter’s school papers, but it’s definitely a problem for spreadsheets containing confidential client data. Those of us tasked with making wireless work at work need to keep up with all the latest wireless security options.
The good news is that companies are working on making implementing security as easy as connecting to a hotspot, in some cases requiring just a few mouse clicks. But the first thing an admin needs to do is brush up on all of the various standards.

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Why WEP Doesn’t Cut It
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) just isn’t sufficiently secure for most businesses. WEP requires all clients to share the same service set identifier (SSID), which geometrically reduces the likelihood that it can remain secret. Since the SSID is static and is the same for all clients, it’s difficult to change, even if it becomes compromised. Its stream cipher algorithm is known to be vulnerable to attack from anyone with motivation, know-how, and some time on their hands. WEP is better than nothing, but not really enough for a business computer.

A better option is Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). It’s an interim standard developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a trade association that certifies wireless technology. WPA is actually a subset of the 802.11i draft standard from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), put in place until 802.11i is officially ratified.

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Wi-Fi security is getting easier, thanks to new systems designed to streamline and demystify the process of setting up your encrypted wireless network.
 

There are two WPA standards. WPA Personal is for home and casual use, while WPA Enterprise includes the same encryption strength with an added integration of remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS).

David Cohen, the chairman of the Wi-Fi Alliance security committee, has seen significant adoption of WPA since it was introduced in April 2003. “WPA Enterprise is quite appropriate for securing business networks,” he said. According to him, virtually any organization of any size or shape can take advantage of WPA Enterprise, and many already do.

Read more: WPA, The Sequel >>