decrypting myths
Stopping
the six major
Wi-Fi threats
Ryan Orsi, Director Product
Management, WatchGuard
Technologies, explores the
major security deficits present
in many Wi-Fi solutions and
the need for businesses to
fundamentally reassess what
they expect from their Wi-Fi.
S
ince the first
802.11 protocol
was released in
1997, Wi-Fi has
become a massive
worldwide market
worth more than
US$6 billion now and projected to reach
US$15.6 billion by 2022 at a compound
annual growth rate of 21.2%. But, despite
this growth and the central role Wi-Fi
has come to play in business and life in
general, the vast majority of Wi-Fi access
points, routers and hotspots are highly
exposed attack surfaces (besides a
handful of government buildings and a
sprinkling of enterprise office buildings).
Practically every security company in
the business focuses on layer seven
application attacks (such as zero-day
malware and ransomware), but very
little attention has been paid to the
Wi-Fi layer two attack surface. There
are six known threat categories in Wi-Fi
security and they’ve gone unaddressed
in the networking and security
industries for far too long.
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Issue 14
It will take education and awareness to
correct this global security issue. One
resource to help build awareness of
what constitutes good Wi-Fi security
is the Trusted Wireless Environment
Framework. It explains how to build
a complete Wi-Fi network that is fast,
easy to manage and, most importantly,
secure. In order to be a true Trusted
Wireless Environment, a Wi-Fi system
must provide automatic detection and
prevention from these six known Wi-Fi
threat categories:
1. Rogue APs
A rogue AP is an AP that has been
physically connected to a network
without explicit authorisation from an
administrator. It’s an instant PCI-DSS
violation. Rogue APs are connected to
the authorised network, allowing the
attackers to bypass perimeter security.
This could be with a physical AP or one
created in software on a computer and
bridged to an authorised network. For
instance, in a busy retail store that has
customers coming in and out all day it is
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