Networking: Wireless LANs
Site Survey
It is imperative for cybersecurity professionals to conduct a thorough site survey when establishing a WLAN. While it’s possible to establish a WLAN without conducting a site survey, a best security practice for management would be to develop policies which determines the frequency of surveys and the specific areas for analysis in order to improve signal strength. Establishing this best security strategy will help organizations provide stronger signals and promote network security. The site survey assists organizations with providing a high level of accessibility to Wi-Fi, which has become a normal expectation for technology users in public places like libraries, student centers and research laboratories (Rubens, 2018). Although WLANs are less secure than other types of networks, their effective use can promote the integrity of data exchanged through communications applications. The primary objective of site surveys is to increase signal strength and speed. Cybersecurity professionals should identify the number of devices needed to connect with the WLAN, as a high number of technical devices require a high amount of bandwidth which can reduce network speeds. Security staff should also become aware of the number of devices using the same bandwidth frequency, most often being those at 2.4GHz as they have become the most common in private and public network usage. This results in significantly decreasing the WLAN speed. It may be a best security strategy to use 5GHz frequency in order to have enough bandwidth space and keep WLAN speeds at efficient levels. Another best security practice would be to reduce the physical properties between the wireless access point and the connected devices, as the signal will be stronger without being altered by doors, walls and ceilings (SETAPP, 2019). Site surveys are helpful in discovering the areas in which a WLAN may be underperforming and the need to increase signal strength. There are also several best security practices that impact the sustainability of WLANs: cybersecurity professionals should use the strongest encryption levels possible, use secure passwords to access Wi-Fi, identify any vulnerable access points, install a separate network for guests, hide the network name to make it more difficult for people who should not have access, use a firewall and virtual private network (VPN), apply MAC address authentication whenever possible. The effective use of these technologies can increase the sustainability of the WLAN.
Policies
Cybersecurity professionals should develop security policies regarding the implementation of WLANs and mitigating its prospective vulnerabilities. Since the demand for WLANs remains high for organizations and personal computer users in most developed territories, it has become one of the major points of emphasis for cybersecurity professionals; even though wireless networks increase in popularity each year, it is important to highlight that WLANs are inherently less secure than other forms of networks. WLANs carry the possibility of being a backdoor entry for hackers, once they move beyond the authentication process for the wireless network, they can look for additional vulnerabilities or spread malicious code essentially as an anonymous guest user. Every access point is a potential vulnerability for the WLAN in which hackers can bring a variety of threat agents to the network. It is a best security practice to install an adequate number of WLANs across the business or corporate entity, as each point has the capability to bring Wi-Fi access to any user within a 1/3-mile radius. Cybersecurity professionals must determine the number of access points and organizational needs to provide effective Wi-Fi access, but also must conduct vulnerability and risk assessments on an ongoing basis to ensure the accessibility and integrity of the network. Even in the presence of potential vulnerabilities on wireless networks, it still remains a best security practice to use a system’s technology to ensure privacy and confidentiality in the most effective way possible although WLANs are inherently less secure. WLANs provide mobility and flexibility to users, but requires constant monitoring and assessment by cybersecurity professionals in order to make them as secure as possible.
Technology users should protect their personally identifiable information (PII) at all times; when this type of information is compromised it gives hackers the ability to access data regarding a user’s identity and credentials for other websites. The following are the most important data in which technology users should protect: names, personal ID numbers, physical addresses, files pertaining to biometrics, motor vehicle ID, phone numbers, as well as MAC and IP addresses. Over the last two decades, social media has become a target for hackers interested in collecting PII from technology users; therefore, protecting social media authentication credentials will prevent prospective hackers from gaining unauthorized access to personal information like pictures, the names of friends and followers, and any content regarding profiles and other applications within social networks. An effective cybersecurity strategy will reduce the number of identity thefts through compromised credentials on a wireless network.
Sound cybersecurity policy details the cautions related to inappropriate social engineering like leaving a device unattended while connected to WLAN. Hackers often examine computers in public places with Wi-Fi connections in order to discover a system in which the user has not signed out of any of their web applications including social media and e-commerce websites, or logged out of the operating system to prevent others from accessing their documents and other files with personal data. Some organizations counter this negative activity by using a VPN, which remains one of the most important security policies for entities with wireless networks. Security policy should address the prevention of the following actions by technology users: using any sort of auto-connect to the wireless network or applications on an operating system, accessing any applications that contain sensitive information, unnecessarily leave on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when not using them, access financial or healthcare data, or connect to wireless internet that does not require a password for authentication. In order to protect wireless networks from hackers, a best security practice would be to inform technology users to disable file sharing on their system, try to visit only websites with an “HTTPS” as a part of its URL to signify its security, always log out of accounts and the operating system after using them, and use WLANs that have an installed VPN.
It’s a best security policy to implement technologies to protect against vulnerabilities presented by Wi-Fi routers, as they can be a target by hackers to gain access to a network, distribute malicious code, and the unauthorized transfer of currency. Cybersecurity professionals should present a standard within security policies that pinpoint that submitting personal information to an eCommerce website through a wireless network should be avoided by all users. Wi-Fi router vulnerabilities negatively impact the user and the eCommerce business as hackers can disrupt both parties through implementing various forms of malware and ransomware. The primary way hackers attack Wi-Fi routers involves the downloading of malicious code by the user; this most often takes place when the user inadvertently downloads malware and ransomware through a web browser, making the router more vulnerable to cyberattacks. At this point, hackers can conduct a brute force attack on the router’s internal IP by using software that attempts to bypass authentication by submitting multiple potential passwords until they compromise the chosen part of a network. One area in which cybersecurity professionals should be cautious regards the hacker’s ability to establish a proxy to reroute any web traffic on the network to malicious destinations. Hackers generally want to redirect traffic to a malicious IP address. After the router has been rebooted it has the ability to reroute all web traffic from any of the devices connected to the wireless network, and respond to user’s request to see particular websites by attaching malware and ransomware to the desired web page.
Education and Availability
Educate technology users regarding the WLANs ability to provide mobility and convenience, but not ensure privacy and security at all times. One of the most significant goals for cybersecurity professionals concerning the use of WLANs is to reduce the number of users whose information gets compromised by hackers. It would be a best security practice to inform users of security policies that indicate that WLANs cannot guarantee complete privacy and total security of their devices when connected to a wireless network. Another best security policy would assign cybersecurity professionals to determine and recommend the types of websites users should have access to through the WLAN. Cybersecurity staff should highlight the importance of users not transferring communication or submitting personal data with any website on the wireless network, especially those that can give hackers access to the user’s sensitive information. One of the greatest challenges regards hacker’s ability to mask or alter a system’s mac address and gain access to wireless networks with a false identity.
Even though WLANs possess more potential vulnerabilities than other networks, cybersecurity professionals should work in collaboration with IT and upper management in order to implement strategies for organizations which will allow companies the benefits of using wireless network. One of the best advantages of using WLANs concerns its ability to provide staff with mobility; the days of employees sitting at a desk with only one connected device are over for many corporations. Today’s workers benefit from using a variety of mobile technologies in order to conduct business operations inside the office and other permissible locations off-campus. WLANs also provide a wide range of coverage to employees, which serves a far greater distance than traditional wired networks. Another significant advantage involves the WLAN’s seamless ability to function on any operating system without disrupting or interfering with programs on the application layer. WLAN’s offer flexibility when installing network hardware as it may prevent cybersecurity professionals and IT from needing to use wires in difficult to reach places like behind walls or in closed-off locations. By adding additional access points, WLANs are highly scalable while remaining a cost-efficient option for home use, business and government networks.