Understanding WLAN Vulnerabilities

When securing your wireless network, begin by assessing your current situation and weighing the possible risks to your network against the cost or inconvenience of the steps that you can take to lock it down. Although every WLAN is vulnerable to some degree, some are more likely to be targeted than others due to location or the way the network is designed.

If your wireless network is located in an urban area, particularly in a location where there is a large tech-savvy population (Silicon Valley, for example), it’s more likely to be discovered by wardrivers or crackers than it would be in a rural area.

Maybe you think that you don’t need to secure your wireless network because you feel that you have nothing sensitive or valuable to secure. Even if this were the case — which it most likely isn’t — you should realize that your wireless network may present another risk. If your WLAN connects to an existing wired Ethernet LAN, it puts the entire wired network segment at risk.

Radio waves are broadcast in all directions and are easily intercepted. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to control where your Wi-Fi signal goes and where it doesn’t go. The open nature of the network media makes wireless LANs less secure than wired networks.