Since the launch of wireless technology, the wireless networks have become one of the most common targets for intruders and hackers as they are easily broken. Not any more!

There are lots of organizations who are deploying wireless technology at a very high pace and they often miss the security consideration. All they look for is low cost effective, easily deployed wireless devices which are far better then wired networks which can grow to complexity. The Wireless LAN components are mostly shipped with the disabled security features and without much knowledge wireless LAN's have been targeted by many hackers community. There are huge repositories of Wireless documentation available on the internet, and still we find these WLAN are being continuously attacked due to low level security.

It's often noticed, most outsiders are connection hungry and there only means to connect is to get internet access and along with them, there are those who would find it easier to attack a network by connection to its WLAN rather coming all over through the internet. The reason for such connections is the broadcasting behavior of the Wireless device which unlike wired LAN can not be restricted. Now if the wireless data is not encrypted any anonymous person can look over that data. Take an example of a Wi-Fi enabled Laptop and a program like TCPDUMP can view, receive and store all packet communications on that WLAN.

Interference and Jamming of wireless is possible?

Wireless communications can be played with easily and can be interfered without any problem. If a small jamming transmitter is used, it become impossible to communicate over wireless. Take an example of a hacker who is continuously sending access request which is being dropped by the wireless access point will eventually knock off the Access Point from the network, as the available radio frequency reaches its congestion point and spectrum becomes full. There are other wireless services which can run on same frequency as WLAN and can reduce the range and available bandwidth of the WLAN, just like the Bluetooth technology. Its been designed to run over unlicensed 2.4 GHz radio frequency for shorter range for example, communication between the headsets and a mobile phone or other appliances. Now this technology can interfere with the WALN radio transmissions.

MAC Authentication can be spoofed?

There are many organizations which uses MAC (Media Access Control) based authentication. What that means is the wireless card manufactured by a Vendor is hardcoded with Vendor ID and device ID which has to be unique. Implementing MAC authentication would mean the user will be identified by there wireless card MAC address which should be allowed by the Access Point's MAC Access List. Now for some reason if the hacker uses a Wi-Fi card which is loaded with a firmware which gives the card an ability to pick any MAC address randomly or a chosen one or deliberately spoofed, that hacker will enter the network and will spoof a legitimate user's Wi-Fi connection.