Wireless connectivity is now a reality in most businesses. Yet by its nature, wireless networks are the most difficult to secure and are often the favorite target of intruders. Some of the primary threats are the result of the following factors:
- Denial of service (DoS) and other network layer attacks
- Unauthorized access across the perimeter and within the organization Application layer intrusions and attacks, both from within and outside the network Extended connectivity through remote access and extranets
- An increase in unmanaged or ill-managed endpoint devices
- New applications like VoIP, instant messaging, and peer-to-peer
This book provides the busy network administrator with best-practice solutions address these threats and to maintain a secure and accessible wireless network. The book endorses the principle that the best strategy is to deploy multiple layers of security, each reinforcing the other. Yet it never strays from its emphasis on the practical; that any tool or methodology that is deployed must work reliably, allow sufficient access, and require a minimal amount of maintenance.
You’ve been on an extended business trip and have spent the long hours of the flight drafting follow-up notes from your trip while connected to the airline’s onboard server. After deplaning, you walk through the gate and continue into the designated public access area. Instantly, your personal area network (PAN) device, which is clipped to your belt, beeps twice announcing that it automatically has retrieved your e-mail, voice mail, and video mail.You stop to view the video mail—a finance meeting—and also excerpts from your children’s school play.
Meanwhile, when you first walked into the public access area, your personal area network device contacted home via the Web pad on your refrigerator and posted a message to alert the family of your arrival.Your spouse will know you’ll be home from the airport shortly.
You check the shuttle bus schedule from your PAN device and catch the next convenient ride to long-term parking.You also see an e-mail from your MP3 group showing the latest selections, so you download the latest MP3 play list to listen to on the way home.
As you pass through another public access area, an e-mail comes in from your spouse.The Web pad for the refrigerator inventory has noted that you’re out of milk, so could you pick some up on the way home? You write your spouse back and say you will stop at the store. When you get to the car, you plug your PAN device into the car stereo input port.With new music playing from your car stereo’s MP3 player, you drive home, with a slight detour to buy milk at the nearest store that the car’s navigation system can find.