Networking / Beginners

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Wireless Vulnerability

As convenient as wireless networks are, their infrastructure is always vulnerable to attack. In fact, wireless systems throughout history have been vulnerable to electronic warfare. If a hacker is going to attack your network, wireless methods are the easiest and surest means to disrupt an entire company.

Electronic warfare and its control is divided into three primary areas:

1. Electronic counter measures (ECM)
2. Electronic support measures (ESM)
3. Electromagnetic counter-countermeasures (ECCM)

ECMs are the actions you need to execute to stop a hacker from using your radio spectrum and causing problems with your ability to keep your wireless infrastructure intact. These types of attacks are often in the form of jamming, an intentional transmission of radio waves that causes serious problems in the functioning of any wireless networking device. Deception, however, is worse, since it is the manipulation of your network with the intent of misleading networking devices so that they think the hacker is actually part of your corporate network. This form of simulation is analogous to a "spoofing" attack that can promote hostile communication and lead to the intentional leakage of mission-critical data through no fault of the user.

ESMs involve the interception, identification, analysis, and localization of hackers disrupting your transmission sources. They also enable you to determine what steps you need to take to deploy the correct amount of force to counter any specified threat.

Hackers often spend an inordinate amount of time collecting intelligence for the purpose of deciphering electromagnetic data radiated by your network.

Communications intelligence, non-communications electronic intelligence (ELINT), and electromagnetic data are all part of a method that provides signal intelligence (SIGINT).

Electronic counter-countermeasures are steps you can take to protect your wireless network against future attacks. One way that these countermeasures can be used is to design your WLAN so that you are operating in ways that the hacker won't anticipate.

Moving on up! (to the 5-GHz band) One good method of staying ahead of hackers attempting to compromise your WLAN is to migrate to 802.11a so that the frequency allocation you use for your wireless transmissions is in the 5-GHz band as opposed to the 2.4-GHz band. Most readily available scanners are in the 2.4-GHz band and since the higher band frequencies are as yet unallocated for many commercial applications, it is just that much more difficult for someone to attempt an attack on your WLAN. Sometimes that is all it takes, just to migrate to a newer application of an existing technology, to put yourself one step ahead of hackers attempting to compromise your wireless infrastructure.

Fortress of solitude (wirelessly speaking) Another way of instituting wireless electronic counter-countermeasures is to isolate the building that houses your WLAN from radio frequency interference. More to the point, this means interference caused by a wireless hacker attempting to disrupt your wireless infrastructure.

Most frequencies in the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands penetrate most standard building materials, but adding shielding will hamper the migration of those frequencies through your corporate facilities to the outside world. Additionally, some building materials and woods are being used in modern cell phone devices to protect users against stray RF energy released during the course of a normal telephone call. Essentially, this means that you can place aluminum panels in the walls near your wireless access point to prevent the transmission of your wireless network beyond a certain distance. This means that only wireless users in your immediate corporate facilities can access the WLAN, while hackers will have a much harder time doing so. In many cases, creating this "fortress of solitude" makes it just that much more difficult for outsiders to attempt any form of electronic warfare on your system; that may be all it takes to protect yourself against the majority of hackers eager to disrupt your wireless infrastructure.