How Secure is Your Wireless Network? Safeguarding Your Wi-Fi LAN

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 224 pages
• Published by: Prentice Hall PTR September 5, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0131402064
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0131402065
• Book Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 13.4 ounces

Product Description
How to implement a realistic, successful game plan for safe and secure wireless LANs.

Step-by-step guidelines and best practices for deploying secure wireless LANs in an enterprise or home environment and also within community networks.
Explains all 802.11 security solutions; covers WEP, 802.11i, WPA, and EAP.
Written by a security expert: Lee Barken writes, speaks, and teaches extensively on the topic of wireless LAN technology and security.

The results of a new study from IDC offer a strong thumbs-up to the fast-evolving information security services sector, predicting that the market for such services will increase to more than $23.5 billion in the next four years. Demand for security for wireless networks will drive the growth of the information security services market. Announcements by major companies (i.e. Intel, Dell, Gateway, IBM) backing wireless technologies are setting the stage for wide-scale deployments and the ushering in a new era of wireless freedom. The bottom line is that wireless is here to stay. The integration of 802.11 into almost all new laptops, coupled with the explosion in availability of public hotspots has created a cycle of large scale wireless proliferation. This invisible, yet inescapable flood of radio waves has landed squarely in our homes and businesses where it presents a new security challenge. How do we embrace the joys of wireless networks while we maintain an essential balance with the security requirements of our organization? This book is all about understanding the technology, recognizing the security risks, and implementing a responsible and realistic game plan for safe and secure wireless communication.

Back Cover Copy


Now you can have the awesome benefits of wireless LANswithout falling victim to their notorious security flaws. Leadingwireless security expert Lee Barken shows you practicalworkarounds and fixes for the vulnerabilities in today'sWLANs, introduces high-security wireless protocols new to themarketplace, and offers step-by-step instructions for protectingall your wireless information, from the home to the enterprise.This is the definitive and easy-to-use WLAN security book you'vebeen searching for--whether you're a network administrator,security specialist, manager, or home user.Topics covered include--

• Why conventional wireless LANs are so insecure--and what you can do about it
• "Wardriving" software, equipment, and techniques: knowing your enemy
• 802.11i, WPA, TKIP, and AES: the new wireless security options
• 802.1x and EAP: enabling port-based authentication on your WLAN
• Safely connecting WLANs to wired networks
• Securing home and small office environments, one step at a time
• Accessing VPNs from wireless devices
• Integrating firewalls and wireless access points
• Improving security in public access environments
• Securing enterprise environments with 802.1x--a start-to-finish walkthrough

Reader Reviews
I have 24 network jacks in my house. I don't want to install another network jack ever. Wireless is the answer from this point. The biggest problem with wireless is evident: security. This is one of numerous books on wireless security. Fortunately, it's a well done book that is not meant to be read by rocket scientists. You know those kinds of books: written by ego-centric techie-geeks who pad their books with technical jargon and useless scientific theory that only people at MIT could understand. Instead, this book is relatively easy to understand as long as you have some knowledge on wireless technology (beyond the fact that there are no wires involved). One chapter that I found to be very interesting covers the concept of war driving, which is the equivalent of driving around to pick up wireless networks in a neighborhood. It also covers how war drivers leave chalk identification markers for other war drivers to know that a wireless network has been detected. The book also adequately covers the various types of authentication and encryption that can be used help to secure a wireless network. Once again, the very technical details about how the packets are designed and how the handshaking takes place tends to be a bit dry to those without much technical experience. Using Windows 2000 Server as the example, the book goes through all of the steps necessary (with a large number of screen shots) to implement a VPN as well as set up an authentication and certificate server for enterprises. Fortunately, the home user is not forgotten. An entire chapter is dedicated to securing and managing a home wireless network; however, all of the home security methods that are covered in this book are Linux-based. Of course, if you're concerned about security, why are you thinking of using Windows in the first place? The appendices have a lot of background information on radio frequency and antennae types. But the really geeky appendix is how to make a functional wireless antenna out of a Pringles potato chip can. Overall, this is a good book to have. Obviously, computer technology being what it is means that the book will be obsolete in relatively short order. However, the fact that this book doesn't adhere to the mindless Windows centricity of most books of this kind also helps to give it that little boost of extra value. I also like this book because it does not have the "I have a master degree so I'm going to speak like I'm addressing only brilliant people so as to impress you and add pages to the book to make it seem more important than it is" attitude. Yes, you should to have a grasp of some of the concepts behind networking protocols to understand this; but the majority of the book is not a difficult read. If you're thinking of implementing a wireless network, this is a good book to have at your side.