February 2008 — News
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The 2 Mistakes Schools Make in Deploying Wireless Networks
Schaffhauser: How do you know when you are on a truly secure wireless network? Is it simply that you need to plug in a username and password?
Keeney: You trust the administrator of the network to know that it's configured correctly. The user can see, when you view wireless networks, it'll say, "Oh, yes, this requires an encryption key and you have to type that in." But to know that it's truly secure the administrators of the network are responsible for that.
Schaffhauser: Is security for WiFi getting easier or harder to do well?
Keeney: I think it's getting easier because the capabilities of the access points themselves are more powerful. They have more capabilities and stronger encryption. It's this on-going game that as security and encryption capabilities are increased, then there's always people out there that just want to go out and try to break it. Then, as weaknesses are found, the vendors will typically fix them.
I always try to explain security for a wireless network this way: Imagine your internal network... and you just hung an Ethernet cable out on the streets, that anybody could plug into. What kind of controls do you want to have over that person who's plugging into it--because with the wireless network, that's what you are offering.
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About the author: Dian Schaffhauser covers high tech, business and higher education for a number of publications. Contact her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.
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