R E L A T E D C O N T E N T

Firms take different WLAN security routes

Half of all WLANs are not password-protected

Peter Judge, IT Week, IT Week 16 Jun 2003

Businesses are adopting wireless networks swiftly, but are taking a selective approach to security, according to a survey at last month's WLAN Event in London. Only 50 percent of the WLANs owned by visitors to the show have password protection, but analysts argued that this and other findings may actually show that the subtleties of WLAN security are becoming better understood.

"The fact that people aren't using password protection is not the end of the world," said Michael Wall of analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. "It depends what you can do when you are on the network. A standalone WLAN used for browsing the net may not need password protection."

The survey of 300 chief executives, managing directors and IT managers was carried out by network security company Orthus. Nearly 60 percent had wireless networks already, and all the rest planned to implement them in the coming year. Fifty-three percent of the companies with wireless LANs had more than 100 WLAN users.

The WLAN was linked to a hardwired network in 43 percent of cases. This could create a dangerous back door in some instances, but resources on the wired network should have their own security measures, said Wall. "It doesn't mean (WLAN users) have access to everything," he added.

But Orthus argued that the survey shows some firms are being careless.

"Half of those surveyed gave their names, having just told us they had wireless LANs with no password protection," said Andy Hogan, business development manager at Orthus.

However, Wall argued, "The fact that people are aware of security implications is the most important thing. If people are aware of passwords and not using them, they probably have reasons not to." Or else they may be actually using passwords which are entered transparently by client software on their computers, he added.

Wall said that awareness of security issues is improving among those people who need security, and the biggest remaining danger is in unauthorised WLAN access points installed by users. "If I put an access point on my desk I could potentially lose my job," he added.

To improve protection, many IT managers are securing the resources on the wired network more tightly to limit what can be done once someone gets onto the network. Hogan commented, "(Managers) understand the security issues of wired networks and it is common sense to apply those to wireless LANs."

Of the survey group, only 41 percent were encrypting their WLAN traffic, 41 percent were using firewalls for their wireless traffic, and 30 percent were using virtual private networks (VPNs) to create secure tunnels on the WLAN.

Have your say: reply to IT Week

See also: