Affordable Wireless Network Security Solutions for Enterprises

With the increase of wireless network attacks, the security of Wireless LAN (WLAN) has become a headache for most enterprises. Users and visitors need to easily access wireless networks, but enterprises also need to avoid the impact of such high-risk attack media on their resources. This means that enterprises may need to increase their budgets to try to maintain compliance and minimize risk control, even if they know they are not under attack by malicious attackers. The good news is that there are now many excellent open-source (free) tools available to test and monitor your wireless network.
 
First, determine the system you want to use. This can be a virtual image running on your existing laptop, or a complete system containing hardware specifically for monitoring and testing purposes. When I started troubleshooting wireless problems, I used the former, but soon found that there were no special system limitations. If you decide to select a dedicated system, you do not need the most powerful hardware, but this will provide you with additional space to store and capture information. As far as the author is concerned, he used his notebook in year 56 for this purpose.
 
Second, make sure you can place the correct operating system and Wi-fi card combination in monitoring or RFMON mode to capture traffic. RFMON is similar to the Ethernet hybrid mode. In addition to the wireless network, RFMON allows you to capture everything, including the management framework, without actually associating the Service Set Identifier (SSID) or access point (AP ). This is a key component. If you use Wireshark to sniff on wireless interfaces, rather than in monitoring mode, you will see the obvious difference. Note that you have translated the WLAN framework into "Ethernet", which means you will miss some important traffic. You will also be unable to execute packet injection, which is a necessary factor for fast cracking of Wired Equivalent confidentiality (WEP) or distributed denial of service (DDoS) (such as de-Authentication attacks.
 
Unix-based systems: more wireless security options and more tools
 
It is easier to implement the monitoring mode in Unix-based operating systems, mainly because many drivers are available for a variety of chip sets supported by mainstream open-source wireless software tools. You can select your preferred Linux version, compile or add data packets, or use Backtrack or KaliLinux in a simpler way. These versions are customized for Unbuntu or Debian, including the most popular and practical Security tools for penetration testing and digital forensics, by the Offensive Security sales company.
 
For Wi-Fi adapters, if you are using Linux, you can save your time and let wireless security experts use the most popular Alfa-based RTL8187L Ralink chip set. At first glance, this seems a little heavy, and Its USB cable connection may be a bit old, but through the high-gain antenna and the suction cup connection, Alfa is not too bad scenery. Of course there are other more convenient options, but from the average price of $25, Alfa is definitely not the wrong choice. I suggest purchasing them in batches and sending them as holiday gifts to my colleagues. Everyone should have an Alfa. But if you want to study other options, consider AirCrack-NG.
 
Another benefit of using external adapters? It is easier to use virtual machine images. This means that we can use Kali Linux, which runs in the notebook at a critical moment.
 
Now let's take a look at the interesting part. Most security professionals will say the best way to test wireless network security is to try to attack it. This is also why penetration testing is seen as the best practice for building and maintaining good network security. However, proceed with caution. Like all tools, your production network may be affected if improperly used. In addition, sniffing traffic also involves privacy issues. Make sure that the enterprise management knows your actions and fully agrees with them. I suggest testing the sandbox at the beginning, not your local cafe. With an additional Alfa card-you can run it in soft AP mode, and you can easily create a test environment at home.
 
Cracking and analyzing your wireless network infrastructure
 
Once you enable Backtrack or Kali, you will find many wireless security options and available applications. Some may not seem very useful because of the command line interface, But Kismet and Aircrack-NG are two of the most popular ones and there are many available documents on their websites.
 
Aircrack-NG focuses on "cracking" and Analysis of WEP and WPA/WPA 2PSK-encrypted wireless networks. By adding Airbase-NG and other tools, we can also simulate attacks against the client, which can help enterprises effectively review the security of any 802.11 Network and wireless intrusion detection/penetration (WIDS/WIPS) function.
 
At the same time, the data sniffer and the intrusion detector Kismet are completely passive. The traffic it captures can be viewed by the most common packet analyzer (such as Wireshark or Tcpdump), which helps detect rogue traffic. Kismet runs on cheap or refurbished devices and may be one of the cheapest options to install WIDS in your enterprise.
 
Is there any problem? You can find many teaching videos in Securitytube.net or Hak5.org so that everyone can use these methods. Security experts are happy to share the methods they know with the community, which can help the community to accumulate wireless security knowledge. But if you are still intimidated by Linux and command lines, you can choose Windows Aircrack-NG.
 
If you are adventurous, you can use an Android tablet or mobile phone running in USB Host Mode and have a connector to support external USB wireless adapters. I use the old Samsung Galaxy, which is very easy to use and more portable than any notebook.
 
Here, I just introduced some tools that can help you improve wireless network security without breaking the budget. These tools can also enhance your knowledge and 802.11 WLAN protocol troubleshooting functions.