Cisco WUSB54GR-UK User's Guide download pdf (Page 46)

Appendix C: Wireless Security

Security Threats Facing Wireless Networks

Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with RangeBooster

1. Disable Broadcast

2. Make it unique

3. Change it often

Most wireless networking devices will give you the option of broadcasting the SSID. While this option may be

more convenient, it allows anyone to log into your wireless network. This includes hackers. So, don’t broadcast

the SSID.

Wireless networking products come with a default SSID set by the factory. (The Linksys default SSID is “linksys”.)

Hackers know these defaults and can check these against your network. Change your SSID to something unique

and not something related to your company or the networking products you use.

Change your SSID regularly so that any hackers who have gained access to your wireless network will have to

start from the beginning in trying to break in.

MAC Addresses. Enable MAC Address filtering. MAC Address filtering will allow you to provide access to only

those wireless nodes with certain MAC Addresses. This makes it harder for a hacker to access your network with

a random MAC Address.

WEP Encryption. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is often looked upon as a cure-all for wireless security

concerns. This is overstating WEP’s ability. Again, this can only provide enough security to make a hacker’s job

more difficult.

There are several ways that WEP can be maximized:

1. Use the highest level of encryption possible

2. Use “Shared Key” authentication

3. Change your WEP key regularly

WPA. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is the newest and best available standard in Wi-Fi security. Two modes are

available: WPA-Personal and WPA-Enterprise. WPA-Personal gives you a choice of two encryption methods: TKIP

(Temporal Key Integrity Protocol), which utilizes a stronger encryption method and incorporates Message

Integrity Code (MIC) to provide protection against hackers, and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), which

utilizes a symmetric 128-Bit block data encryption. WPA-Enterprise offers two encryption methods, TKIP and AES,

with dynamic encryption keys, and it uses a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) server for

authentication.

Important: Always remember that each

device in your wireless network MUST use

the same encryption method and encryption

key or your wireless network will not function

properly.

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Cisco WUSB54GR-UK User's Guide Page 46