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

Foreword

Effective security is critical for wireless LANs to ensure proper safeguards for information in homes and businesses. With wireless LANs, people from outside a physically secure facility can monitor transmissions, access applications, and cause denial-of-service attacks. The potential for these problems is growing rapidly as wireless LANs proliferate and hackers learn more ways to circumvent traditional security mechanisms.

For example, a retail store may deploy wireless LANs as the data transport for a mobile point of sale application. In this case, a clerk uses a wireless handheld device to check items and process credit card transactions. Without superior encryption mechanisms, a hacker can easily monitor and decode credit card numbers ...