Security Risks
There are multiple risks when you do not secure your wireless network:
– Masquerading—The attacker impersonates an authorized user and thereby gains certain
unauthorized privileges.
– Replay—The attacker monitors transmissions (passive attack) and retransmits messages as the legitimate user.
– Message modification—The attacker alters a legitimate message by deleting, adding to,
changing, or reordering it.
– Denial-of-service—The attacker prevents or prohibits the normal use or management of
communications facilities.


Data Interception
Wireless networks are not a secure form of communication. This means that access is open to everyone, or anyone within a specific radius can intercept any communication along that network. Usually there is no big danger since most of the informations is not confidential, unless it's your personal information (phone number, address, credit card number....). On the other hand for a company it is best to strategize when using wireless networks.

Network Intrusion
Stations can access a wire network and eventually the internet once an access point is installed on a local network. Only if the local network is linked to the access point. A non protected wireless network is an open door for any intruder looking to access vital information from companies or organizations.

Other than theft, information destruction and free internet access already present with wireless networks, these networks can give full access to hackers who are planning online attacks. Since there is no way to determine the identity of the culprit, the person or company who set up the wireless network can be found responsible for the attack.

Radio interference
Radio waves are very sensitive to interference. This is why a signal can easily be jammed when near a radio show with the same or almost the same frequency as the wireless network being used. Even a microwave can interfere with the wireless network signal while in range of an access point.

Denial-of-service
The network access method s=for the 802.11 standard is based on the CSMA/CA protocol. This protocol minimizes the likelihood of two devices transmitting simultaneously. Once the connexion is established the station must associate itself with an access point before sending plausible information. When under
attack, the device behaves as if the channel is always busy, preventing the transmission of any data over the wireless network. This is what they call a denial of service when hackers intentionally interrupt access to a wireless network.

On the other hand other occurrences can happen when using portable equipment. Denial of service attacks on batteries are very common. The hacker will use your wireless network to transmit informations till your portable equipment (laptops, personal electronic has no more battery power and becomes useless.

NEXT MONTH: The solutions to protect wireless networks

Metropolitan Golf Club in Ville d'Anjou
February 21st 2007 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

NEW PRODUCT
Double anti-theft cables (Twinlock) for computers. Attach 2 pieces of equipment with only one cable, in the office or on the road. Weight gain, space gain and money gain cause for the price of one 50$ cables you can protect 2 pieces of equipment.
http://www.stopoxygen.com/en/securityproducts/Cables-locks/Cables-locks.html



Come to test these new and improved security cables

SECURITY RESOURCES LIBRARY
During the SECURITY EXPO between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. we will be showing the virtual library. This library contains all relative security documents collected by AQIS members. Our objective is to become the first francophone security resource center (documents in other languages are still available).
The library will be located in the same aisle as Stop Oxygen (diagonally)

MORNING CONFERENCE AND LUNCH CONFERENCE
Morning conference : Identity theft and card cloning
Lunch conference : Managing impromptus events and unforeseen planning
See details in document below

FREE GIFTS
Stop Oxygen will be given away one ticket for the morning conference and one for the afternoon conferece to the two first people who can answer this question correctly : " What was the subject of November 2005's Special Issue newsletter?" ANSWER BY EMAIL AT : claude.maillet@stopoxygen.com
There will also be a participation prize at our Kiosk

CONFERENCE INSCRIPTIONS
If you would like to attend one of the conferences, please contact Ginette Bourdua at aqis@videotron.ca or simply register online at http://www.aqis.org/formulaire/form07-02-21.htm

Wi-Fi was developed to be used for mobile computing devices such as laptops, internet VoIP phone access, gaming and basic connectivity of consumer electronics such as television and DVD players or even digital cameras. A person with a Wi-Fi enabled device such as a computer, cellphone or PDA can connect to the Internet when in proximity of an access point. The region covered by one or several access points is called a hotspot. Hotspots can range from a single room to many square miles of overlapping hotspots.

The 802.11 amendment attempts to define the two lower layers of the seven-layer ISO for a wireless connection through electromagnetic waves, which means :
- the physical layer (also called PHY), proposes three types of information coding
- the data link layer has two sub-layers named Logical Link Control (LLC) and the Media Access Control (MAC)

The shapes of the electrical connectors, which frequencies they broadcast on, what modulation scheme to use and similar low-level things are specified in the physical layer, in comparison to the data link layer which provides the functional and procedural means to transfer data between network entities and might provide the means to detect and possibly correct errors that may occur in the Physical layer. The 802.11 amendment proposes 3 physical layers to define different means of transmission :

It is possible to use any type of high level protocol on a WiFi wireless network the same way you would with an ethernet connection.

Different WiFi standards

802.11 is a set of IEEE Data Link Layer amendments that govern wireless networking transmission methods. They are commonly used today in their 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g versions to provide wireless connectivity in the home, office and some commercial establishments.

The 802.11a amendment (baptized WiFi 5) allows users to have a maximum raw data rate of 54 Mbit/s, which yields a net throughput in the mid-30 Mbit/s. The 802.11a amendment has 8 radio channels at a 5GHz frequency.

The 802.11b is the most commonly used amendment nowadays. It has a maximum raw data rate of 11 Mbit/s. In practice the maximum 802.11b throughput that an application can achieve is about 5.9 Mbit/s. Typical range can vary up to 300 meters in an open area. The frequency runs at 2.4 GHz, with 3 available radio channels.

The public has no interest in the 802.11 c amendment. It's only a modification to the 802.11 d amendment. It was created to be able to make a link between the 802.11 trams (data link level)

Going global
The 802.11d amendment is a wireless network communications specification for use in countries where systems using other standards in the 802.11 family are not allowed to operate. The amendment eliminates the need for designing and manufacturing dozens of different hardware solutions, each for use in a particular jurisdiction.

The 802.11e amendment offers quality of service (QoS) features, including the prioritization of data, voice, and video transmissions. It provides seamless interoperability between business, home, and public environments such as airports and hotels, and is especially well suited for use in networks that include multimedia capability.

The 802.11f amendment is a proposal that describes wireless access-point communications among multivendor systems. This technology, to be specified as the Inter-Access Point Protocol, handles the registration of APs within a network and the exchange of information when a user is roaming among coverage areas supported by different vendors' access points. It will help with fast hand-off from AP to AP.

The 802.11g amendment is a standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs) that offers transmission over relatively short distances at up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps), compared with the 11 Mbps theoretical maximum with the earlier 802.11b amendment. Networks employing 802.11g operate at radio frequencies which range between 2.400 GHz and 2.4835 GHz, the same band as 802.11b.

802.11 h is intended to resolve interference issues introduced by the use of 802.11a in some locations, particularly with military radar systems and medical devices.

802.11 i is a standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs) that provides improved encryption for networks that use the 802.11a, 802.11b (which includes Wi-Fi) and the 802.11g amendment. The 802.11i standard requires new encryption key protocols, known as Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The 802.11i standard was officially ratified by the IEEE in June of 2004, and thereby became part of the 802.11 family of wireless network specifications.

The 802.11 r standard is designed to speed handoffs between access points or cells in a wireless LAN.

The 802.11 j specification is a proposed addition to the 802.11 family of amendments for wireless local area networks (WLANs) that incorporates Japanese regulatory extensions to the 802.11a amendment. It is interesting to note the existence of another standard nammed <<802.11 b+>>. This is a proprietary standard that proposes amelioration through the output frequencies. In return this standard suffers from gaps in terms of interoperability guarantee as it is not an IEEE standard.

Ranges and Outputs

The 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g are all physical standards. They correspond to a revision of the 802.11 standard. It proposes multiple executions that allow for different data rates (debits) in function with their range.

802.11 a
The 802.11a standard uses the same core protocol as the original standard, operates in 5 GHz band, and uses a 52-subcarrier orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) with a maximum raw data rate of 54 Mbit/s, which is 5 times more than the 802.11b, for a range of approximately 30 feet.It uses 8 channels that cannot be masked.

802.11b
The 802.11b amendment allows for a raw data rate of 11 Mbps, and can reach up to 50 meters internally and up to 200 meters outdoors (even above that if there are directional antennas).

802.11g
The 802.11g amendment allows a 54 Mbps raw data rate with a range equivalent to the 802.11b. On the other hand if the 802.11g amendment uses the 2,4 GHZ frequency with a OFDM code, this amendment is compatible with 802.11b equipments with the exception of certain old equipments.