Wireless Technology Security

Running head: WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY SECURITY
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY SECURITY
Matthew Gibson
American Public University
Doctor Harry Cooper

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Problem Statement...........................................................................................................................2
Relevance and Significance.............................................................................................................2
Reason behind the security issues of Wi-Fi.....................................................................................5
Needs of a successful attack from social engineering perspective..............................................7
Reason behind the security issue of WEP.......................................................................................7
Security issues of shared key authentication.................................................................................10
Reason behind real world security attacks.....................................................................................10
Improve issues associated with TKIP............................................................................................11
WPA Security Flaws......................................................................................................................12
WEP security flaws........................................................................................................................13
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Wireless technology security is defined as the prevention of any kinds of access or
damage to the systems or information which are unauthorized by utilizing the wireless networks.
Some of the most common types of wireless security are WPA or Wi-Fi Protected Access and
WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy. The main purpose of the study is to develop a concept on the
wireless technology security. It can also be considered as a subset of the security of network
which is capable of adding protection for a wireless network of computer. Such a security is
delivered with the help of some wireless devices like a wireless switch or router which is capable
of encrypting as well as securing all communications which are wireless by default.
Problem Statement
Wireless networking is seen to have been prone to several issues of security. Hackers
have been able to found that wireless networks are easier to break into and uses wireless
technology for hacking into the networks which are wired (Jing et al., 2014). Therefore, it is very
much important for the enterprises in defining effective wireless technology security policies for
guarding against access to important resources which are unauthorized.
Relevance and Significance
Wireless technology security is capable of primarily protecting a wireless network from
any type of attempts of access which are both unauthorized as well as malicious (Borgohain,
Kumar & Sanyal, 2015). The security of wireless technology is offered through devices which
are mainly wireless like a switch or a router. These devices just encrypts and protects wireless
sharing of information by default. Even if the security of wireless technology is compromised,

3WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY SECURITY
the hackers are unable to view the traffic or the packet content in transit ( Pathan, 2016).
Detection of wireless intrusion and systems of prevention also helps in protecting a wireless
network by directly giving alerts to the administrator of the wireless network in case of any kind
of security breach (Osseiran, Monserrat & Marsch, 2016). Both WEP and WPA are common
algorithms or rather standards which are capable of ensuring wireless technology security. It has
been observed that WEP is a bit weak standard of security as the password which it uses can be
cracked within a few minutes with a variety of available tools of software. On the other hand,
WPA is a much quicker alternative for improving the security over WEP. The recent standard
which is being used is WPA2 but some of the hardware cannot support SWPA2 if upgrade of
firmware is not done. It can be used as a device of encryption which can encrypt the network
with the help of a key of 256 bit. Longer is the length of the key, more is the improvement over
WEP (Rhodes-Ousley, 2013). Some of the most common policies of wireless security within
enterprises include Wireless Prevention Systems or Wireless Detection Systems of Intrusion.
While using wireless technology, it is to be known that there are several wireless threats
at home which may be encountered. Some of them are piggybacking, wardriving or any other
unauthorized access of computer. For providing wireless technology security several steps are to
be undertaken. They are:
Wireless Network made invisible: It is very much important to keep the wireless
network invisible to others (Xiao, 2016). This is done by seeing the user manual of access point
for instructions on making the identifier broadcasting disabled.