How to hack proof wireless networks

BANGALORE, INDIA: Securing a wireless network has been a hot topic of discussion for quite a long time. The convenience and anonymity of wireless networks makes them hacker’s playgrounds. Most of the users are unaware of the vulnerabilities of wireless networks, making it easily accessible to hackers.

In an interaction with CIOL, Vishak Raman, country manager India, Fortinet Inc., talks about how defenseless our wireless networks are and what all can be done to protect them. 

CIOL: Do you think there is change in nature of wireless threats over the last couple of years? Or, the threats have been the same for both wired and wireless networks?

Vishak Raman: There has been a dramatic shift in the nature of network threats in general for the past two years that affects both wired and wireless networks. The perception that wireless threats have increased could be due to several trends that have been building up over the last five years or so.

For example, there is the growing proliferation of 802.11b/g/n networks and the ubiquity of smartphones and PDAs that can access Internet content. Apart form this, there is a shift to packet-switched IP-based networks for mobile providers and telecommunications companies to support Internet services such as email and web browsing.

Network threats that used to affect wired networks, such as hacking, viruses, Trojans and worms can now affect wireless networks too because the transport protocol used by both types of networks is the same: IP.

CIOL: Why do you think mobile devices become primary targets of attackers?

VR: Mobile devices and wireless-enabled notebook computers are particularly susceptible to network threats such as hacking because their users are often using a public network.

For example, notebook users often share folders when within the corporate network, but once they leave the office and connect via a public wireless “hot spot”, they frequently forget to turn off the file sharing and thus other users on the same wireless network can see the shares and, if they are unscrupulous, may copy files out of that shared folder, or worse, upload malware into the shared folder.

CIOL: What makes wireless networks so susceptible?  Are the wireless network users aware of these vulnerabilities? Are they cautious enough?

VR: The convenience and anonymity of wireless networks is mostly to be blamed, we think, for the increased insecurities. People using wireless networks typically assume that nobody in that “hotspot” knows who they are or who they work for, so they assume that the risk of attacks against their system is low.

The reality is, this may not be the case: it is almost trivial to follow people around, and once you see your “target” logged into a wireless network, you can login yourself and browse for his computer on the network.

Users so far are not as aware of the security risks of public wireless networks as they should be. It does not matter if they login via GPRS, 802.11b/g/n, i-mode or virtually any current wireless protocols. The risk is still the same because the base transport protocol is IP. User education will probably take a few more years at the very least, just as it took years before companies began to take network threats seriously.

CIOL: Despite the insecurities, the number of wireless networks is still increasing. How can we increase the awareness of security issues in this scenario?

VR: Public wireless networks have to remain open to be popular. Securing these networks is likely beyond the skill level of their operators who may be coffee shop owners, shopping center or hotel staff.

User education is one way to raise awareness of these issues, and this can be achieved effectively by the IT staff in virtually all companies.

Other ways may be “locking down” corporate laptops so that when they leave the company, shared folders are reset to an unshared default, and only the services that are absolutely necessary are enabled. Some antivirus software vendors already offer this feature, which applies different security policies depending on the connection type.