Wireless Encryption On The Rise – Threats Still Exist

According to a report from RSA, more companies are using wireless encryption software or the Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP). This means that, overall, there are fewer “open access points” through which unauthorized data access can occur.

According to the report, business use of wireless access points has been increasing, and so too has their protection. In London, where business wireless access points grew by 180% over 1996, the encryption of access points improved from 74% to 81%. In NY, the improvement rose from 75% to 76%. In all cities, there was also a rise in advanced encryption use.

One must consider, however, that 20-25% of companies are still completely unprotected. In major cities such as London and New York, this poses a significant threat to many large corporations.

Despite the use of encryption, many businesses are leaving themselves open to attack by using the default out-of-the-box settings. In London, this rose from 22% to 30%.

“Often times the people putting these things up are not very sophisticated about managing security, that’s why you see so many access points with out-of-the-box settings, people broadcast the SSID without knowing the implications,” he said. “However, as we have learned in other areas of security, it will likely only take a few high-profile incidents where wireless is the entry point to convince some of the less sophisticated users to get savvier about protecting themselves.”

RSA notes also that Wifi hotspots are posing a greater threat, as hackers are taking advantage of business users who neglect to protect their logon information in unsecured settings. Additionally, with widespread adoption of wireless technology, unprotected business networks are mistakenly or intentionally being used as public hotspots.

Via zero day Tags: encryption, encryption technology, wireless encryption, wep, wifi hotspots, business wireless networks, wireless, wireless networks, business security, it security