WiFi Hotspots
Feb 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Jacqueline Emigh
Already experienced with the risks and benefits of 802.11 WiFi, government and corporate security managers are now grappling with early signs of convergence between 802.11 and other wireless systems, ranging from cellular networks to a short-range technology known as Bluetooth.
Geared to communications across distances of a few miles, WiFi has connected work-at-home and telecommuting environments as well as business and government organizations of all sizes over the past few years.
At the end of 2005, for instance, Proxim Wireless Corp., San Jose, Calif., announced that the City of Burbank, Calif., is using its WiFi equipment on a new municipal wireless network. Built by the city in conjunction with M-Gravity LLC, a Torrance, Calif.-based wireless technology specialist, Burbank's new network features a wireless “hotspot” about one square mile in size, offering wireless Internet access to citizens.
Other government agencies with WiFi networks already in place run the gamut from the U.S. Department of Defense to the communities of Corpus Christi, Texas and Chasta, Minn. What's the attraction? According to experts, the key advantage of WiFi networks is portability.
To hook up a laptop to either the Internet or an enterprise network, it must simply be situated near a piece of hardware known as an access point (AP). In Burbank, for example, APs have been installed on street lamps throughout the wireless hotspot, in addition to municipal buildings outside the hotspot.
Moreover, many foresee a day, not too far away, when WiFi-enabled voice communications will be as commonplace as WiFi data connections, through an emerging Internet-based technology known as voice over IP (VOIP).
On the other hand, unless properly deployed, WiFi networks are still fraught with security risks, according to other experts. Some organizations with WiFi networks have been hit hard by roving bands of hackers, sometimes known as “war drivers.”
How do wireless hackers operate? Typically, these potential intruders ride around in vans rigged up with WiFi hardware and software, trying to detect and tap into 802.11 wireless networks from the street. And all too often, they succeed.
WiFi vendors and industry groups have long worked hard on information security, but wireless experts point to a few lingering areas of vulnerability.
A couple of years ago, the WiFi industry started to replace WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol), an encryption technique known as particularly easy to break, with the much stronger AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). But although the tide is turning, WEP still holds a lot of sway.
Moreover, many WiFi users fail to replace the easy-to-crack “default” SSID (system IDs) that come with their APs with strings of characters that would be harder for interlopers to guess. As many see it, better usability might help to produce improved security. “People will only accept easy-to-use security mechanisms. Wireless technology can be a very high hurdle for many of them to get past,” says Rich DeMilo, dean of the College of Computing at Atlanta's Georgia Institute of Technology.
At the same time, WiFi networks are now starting to come together with other wireless technologies, raising new sorts of issues. WiFi and cellular networks carry the potential to complement one another well, according to some, because at this point, these two varieties of wireless networks are tailored to different types of devices.
For the most part, WiFi is used with PCs. Michael Finneran, president of dBRN Associates, Hewlett Neck, N.Y., says that some organizations have even set up special conference rooms for connecting PC laptops to the Internet and other data networks.
In contrast, cellular networks are still almost the exclusive province of cell phones and PDAs. “You do not see too many employees trying to balance laptops in their hands as they roam down the hallways talking on the phone,” Finneran says.
Similarly, PDAs are also better suited than laptops to a variety of data entry tasks performed by mobile workers, including work carried out by soldiers in the field.
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© 2010 Penton Media Inc.
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