Introduction

In many corporate networks across the country, wireless devices are extending the network perimeter beyond the confines of the office walls and into neighboring buildings and public streets. No longer does an attacker need to gain network access by breaking into an office or attempting to bypass strict firewall policies. Now they can take advantage of an unsuspecting company who doesn t realize their wireless infrastructure security is so loose it can be hacked in less than 15 minutes.

You often read stories about hackers sitting in vehicles with a laptop and a high-powered wireless antenna, scanning for insecure wireless networks to compromise. These hackers may be looking for internal corporate intellectual property to sell to a competitor or data that may be used for blackmail or extortion. The more difficult you make it for the attacker, the better chance you have that a hacker will pass on your network and go after a less secure one.

Wireless attacks are occurring! BJ Wholesale Club, Lowe s Companies Inc., DSW, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and TJX have all been victims of compromised wireless networks. The cost of these data breaches could be well into the millions of dollars, but their true cost remains difficult to calculate since we must take into consideration the money spent by the company to investigate the problem, provide damages to the victims, fix the vulnerabilities, and factor in loss of revenue due to low consumer confidence.

Regardless of the complexity of your design, an attacker...