Chapter 11. Scanning and Penetrating Wireless Networks

"It's as BAD as you think, and they ARE out to get you!"

Bumper sticker

On April 7, 2005, three men were convicted of hacking into the wireless network of a Lowe's home improvement store and stealing credit card information from customers. The attack was launched from the parking lot of a Lowe's store in Michigan, where the three men broke into the store's wireless network, which had connections into the main database in North Carolina.

What these three men accomplished is becoming a common news headline as more malicious hackers are discovering how easy it is to break into wireless networks. Securing wireless networks is not an easy task. Although wireless networking provides the benefits of easy mobility and installation, it makes it easy for anyone sitting in a car outside a building to gain access to a corporate network.

In this chapter, you will discover the challenges with securing a wireless network by examining the security solutions and tools used to audit and protect wireless environments. This chapter discusses how to detect and prevent wireless attacks in your environment and concludes with a case study showing you just how easy it is to penetrate wireless networks.