Wireless

THERE has been an upsurge in the deployment of wireless networks in Zimbabwe both at home and corporate environments. The number of Internet hotspots also bear testimony to this uptake.

Although wireless networking offers lots of benefits, including mobility, easy deployment and low maintenance costs, it poses a number of security risks. These security risks, if not properly addressed, can reverse the benefits of wireless networking. Wireless networking works with no physical wired connection between sender and receiver by using radio frequency (RF).

As boats in the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race converge on Stockholm, a temporary 200Mbps wireless network has been set up in the city to cope with media coverage of the event.

The network, almost one kilometre long, will accommodate all data traffic surrounding the event, providing internet access to television and radio broadcasters, sponsors, service teams, guests, and the general public.

As mobile phones have been evolving to become more and more like computers when it comes to useful features and functions available with PCs at the same time they incurred the same problems we have when using our desktops and laptops. Smartphones with the options and operating systems much like computers have are also vulnerable to malicious applications and virus attacks which often results either in device damage or identity theft. Besides, such malware attacks also allow violators to fully control mobile devices and perform actions they initiate.

Thousands of people with poor wireless internet security are vulnerable to criminals who can hack into their computers, download illegal material using their internet account and access personal banking details, police warn.

802.11n is expected to be ratified later this year and to provide speeds of up to 600 Mbps, which is over ten times faster than the existing standards. 802.11n also has other benefits such as increased range and reliability over legacy standards. What should you know about 802.11n? In this article, I will discuss five of the main technical improvements of 802.11n.

The technical improvements that I will discuss include:

MIMO Antennas
Spatial Multiplexing
Channel Bonding
Short Guard Interval
MAC Layer Improvements

Wireless internet enabled laptops and devices like BlackBerries and iPhones have been true life-savers for travelers. Back before the whole wireless internet explosion, the frequent flying businessman, the leisure traveler and the vacationing mom and dad all had to be content to exist in a sort of purgatory while moving from point A to point B.

How secure are wireless networks in our cities? Mostly not secure enough, if the results of a ‘war driving’ exercise conducted by Deloitte India across 12 cities is any indication. This exercise covered 35,860 wireless networks in these cities, and involved driving around selected areas with laptops having a built-in wireless card to capture information about networks in the neighbourhood.

BT will take over as Wi-Fi operator at Starbucks coffee shops in the UK and Ireland, leaving T-Mobile customers more than 650 hotspots down.

Announcing the deal today, BT said it will begin to install service in some stores this week, with rollout scheduled to be completed by the end of summer. The deal is for five years. T-Mobile has operated Starbucks hotspots for the last 6 years on a subscription or pay as you go basis.

Rob Havelt, practice manager for penetration testing at Trustwave's SpiderLabs unit, will demonstrate how easy it is to attack legacy 802.11 FHSS networks, which are often seen as inherently secure because so few off-the-shelf tools are available for remote eavesdropping.

The 802.11 FHSS technology has been outmoded in most wireless applications, but it is still commonly used in warehousing facilities because it works so well with inventory management equipment, such as handheld bar-code scanners and printers.

Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. combined some of its key wireless network products to create an all-WiFi campus at Lewis University in Romeoville.

The campus is perhaps the first in the nation to have wireless, high-speed broadband both inside and outside its buildings, reaching out to its outdoor sporting events as well as its own airport.

It's also the first time Motorola combined some of its industry-known products, such as Mesh, wireless connectivity for governments and the public sector, and its recently acquired AirDefense wireless security to cover the entire campus.