Wi-Fi Security: Are We There Yet?
Security has been the most often-cited reason why enterprise customers have deferred installation of wireless LANs. Those concerns were justified when the only security option was the rather anemic Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), but the IEEE and the Wi-Fi Alliance have since developed far more comprehensive security solutions: Wi-Fi Protected Access and IEEE 802.11i. (802.11i compliance is called "WPA2 Certified" by the Wi-Fi Alliance.) The peculiar thing is that the security establishment doesn't seem to believe in them.
According to Webtorials' "2005 Wireless LAN State of the Market Report," WPA and 802.11i are used by 29 percent and 22 percent of respondents respectively. On the other hand, 42 percent are still using the traditional "workaround" solution, i.e., running a VPN secure tunnel (e.g., IPSec) over their wireless LANs. The question is, if we have a functional solution defined in the WLAN standards, why are they sticking with a Rube Goldberg solution?
