Wireless ‘In’Security

By S.R. Snodgrass Technology Services Group

We are often asked about the current state of security of a wireless network. This brief  article highlights some of the security features on common wireless networks as well as ways that an attacker can circumvent that security and attempt to breach your network.

Encryption

There are two affordable and common types of encryption on the market today for wireless devices: WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). Both wireless technologies have the ability to encrypt data up to a 128-bit cipher, but it should be noted that not all devices use this “strong” encryption level by default. In both cases (although approximately twice as long in the case of WPA encryption), an attacker can “sniff” and collect enough packets of a certain type (called “Weak IVs”) from your wireless network in order to begin “cracking” your WEP encryption code. Packet Re-injection techniques can help an attacker generate large amounts of wireless traffic on your network in order to increase the number of Weak IV packets that are being sent (which need to be collected in large quantities in order to “crack” the code).

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