WATCHING THE WAVES

摘要

It's been years since the weaknesses of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) came to the fore, but despite the best efforts of vendors and industry groups, the notion that it's next to impossible to secure a WLAN is still alive and kicking. The truth is, battening down your wireless LAN has gotten easier (see "Wi-Fi vs. Bad Guy," page 36). Still, despite the time and money we'll spend making sure only authenticated users gain access to wireless networks and only encrypted data goes airborne, WLAN security isn't complete. Once you build a secure WLAN, you must ensure it stays secure. Whether you're after rogue-AP (access point) alerts or detailed information on serious threats like DoS (denial-of-service) attacks, under- standing your WLAN environment is key to ensuring that your wireless network provides connectivity without compromising your company's data security. To this end, you can use the monitoring native to your WLAN infrastructure or supplement your AP setup with overlay devices. We tested both infrastructure and overlay products to find the benefits and pitfalls of each.