What Safeguards Are Associated With Wireless Communication?
What risks and safeguards are associated with wireless communication? What is “war driving” or “war flying”? Are you comfortable (or would you use) a wireless “hot spot” to do computer work? What safeguards might you use in accessing an unprotected (public) wireless communications? Are you more at risk using a wireless connection via laptop or a connection via a smart phone?
Transmissions over wireless networks can be intercepted by any suitable device within the transmission radius. If a network intruder is able to attach to an unsecured AP, they can get access to the wireless network and the Internet connection.
Media access control address filtering can be used to limit access to only identifiable network cards with approved MAC addresses. A MAC address is a hardware code designed uniquely for each PC and network device. This system is not guaranteed because MAC addresses are broadcast in the clear, so an intruder may be able to spoof them. …show more content…
Wireless communications are, by their very nature, radio waves riding on different frequencies.
As such antennas made with a Quaker Oats container and aluminum foil can intercept radio transmissions if they do not encrypt or otherwise secure the source of the communications. This is a primary risk of wireless communications that many users fail to appreciate. Wireless access points must be further secured with encryption protocols such as WiFi Protected Access (WPA-2) which uses a longer and stronger cryptographic key that must be exchanged between sender and receiver. This is one of the primary safeguards of wireless technology, as it ensures that the receiver must return the correct key in order for communications to occur. When encryption technologies are deployed in wireless networks, interception is nearly impossible. Marshall
Lewis
The risks associated with wireless communication are Denial of Service Attacks (DoS), worms, viruses, and Trojans horses. Dos attacks consist of making repeated request of a computer system or network, which overloads it and denies legitimate user access to it. A worm is a virus that repeatedly copies itself into a computers memory or disk drive, often causing the computer to crash. A virus is a deviant program stored on a computer floppy disk, hard drive, or CD that can cause undesirable effects, such as destroying or erasing data. The Trojan horse is a program that pretends to be a useful program such as a game or screen saver, but carries a virus or destructive instructions that perpetuate mischief without users’ knowledge. These risks are spread through wireless devises by infected floppies or CDs, clicking on infiltrated websites or internet downloads, opening unknown email attachments, multimedia messaging service (MMS) attachments, and blue tooth transfers, infiltrated Wi-Fi hotspots. The precautions that should be taken are: deleting spam & unknown emails, don’t start computer with a floppy disk or CD inside, back-up files regularly and using a separate device, use anti virus protection software, by using firewalls and Mozilla Firefox by Internet Explorer as your browser, installing security devices on cellular phones and by turning off Bluetooth discoverable mode.
According to Computerworld, “War Driving” is derived from the “war-dialing” exploits of the teenage hack character in the 1983 movie War Games who has his computer randomly dial hundreds of numbers and eventually winds up tapping into a nuclear command and control system. War drivers cruise their immediate areas in cars equipped with laptops loaded with a wireless LAN card, an external high-gain antenna, and a GPS receiver The wireless LAN card and GPS receiver feed signals into freeware, such as NetStumbler or Kismet, which detects access points and their identifiers along with their GPS-derived locations. “War Flying is the same as “War Driving”, except that it’s done using private airplanes, taking short trips, and flying at altitudes between 1500 and 2500 ft.
I would feel comfortable using public wireless connections, although I would not use them very often, but with using a firewall and taking the necessary precautions. In terms of risk, it’s my belief that there’re greater risks associated with cellular phones, because people are using them more frequently. According the text, it says more connectivity, more exposure and faster spreading viruses. Stephany Kahga
Transmissions over wireless networks can be intercepted by any suitable device within the transmission radius. If a network intruder is able to attach to an unsecured AP, they can get access to the wireless network and the Internet connection.
Media access control address filtering can be used to limit access to only identifiable network cards with approved MAC addresses. A MAC address is a hardware code designed uniquely for each PC and network device. This system is not guaranteed because MAC addresses are broadcast in the clear, so an intruder may be able to spoof them. …show more content…
Wireless communications are, by their very nature, radio waves riding on different frequencies.
As such antennas made with a Quaker Oats container and aluminum foil can intercept radio transmissions if they do not encrypt or otherwise secure the source of the communications. This is a primary risk of wireless communications that many users fail to appreciate. Wireless access points must be further secured with encryption protocols such as WiFi Protected Access (WPA-2) which uses a longer and stronger cryptographic key that must be exchanged between sender and receiver. This is one of the primary safeguards of wireless technology, as it ensures that the receiver must return the correct key in order for communications to occur. When encryption technologies are deployed in wireless networks, interception is nearly impossible. Marshall
Lewis
The risks associated with wireless communication are Denial of Service Attacks (DoS), worms, viruses, and Trojans horses. Dos attacks consist of making repeated request of a computer system or network, which overloads it and denies legitimate user access to it. A worm is a virus that repeatedly copies itself into a computers memory or disk drive, often causing the computer to crash. A virus is a deviant program stored on a computer floppy disk, hard drive, or CD that can cause undesirable effects, such as destroying or erasing data. The Trojan horse is a program that pretends to be a useful program such as a game or screen saver, but carries a virus or destructive instructions that perpetuate mischief without users’ knowledge. These risks are spread through wireless devises by infected floppies or CDs, clicking on infiltrated websites or internet downloads, opening unknown email attachments, multimedia messaging service (MMS) attachments, and blue tooth transfers, infiltrated Wi-Fi hotspots. The precautions that should be taken are: deleting spam & unknown emails, don’t start computer with a floppy disk or CD inside, back-up files regularly and using a separate device, use anti virus protection software, by using firewalls and Mozilla Firefox by Internet Explorer as your browser, installing security devices on cellular phones and by turning off Bluetooth discoverable mode.
According to Computerworld, “War Driving” is derived from the “war-dialing” exploits of the teenage hack character in the 1983 movie War Games who has his computer randomly dial hundreds of numbers and eventually winds up tapping into a nuclear command and control system. War drivers cruise their immediate areas in cars equipped with laptops loaded with a wireless LAN card, an external high-gain antenna, and a GPS receiver The wireless LAN card and GPS receiver feed signals into freeware, such as NetStumbler or Kismet, which detects access points and their identifiers along with their GPS-derived locations. “War Flying is the same as “War Driving”, except that it’s done using private airplanes, taking short trips, and flying at altitudes between 1500 and 2500 ft.
I would feel comfortable using public wireless connections, although I would not use them very often, but with using a firewall and taking the necessary precautions. In terms of risk, it’s my belief that there’re greater risks associated with cellular phones, because people are using them more frequently. According the text, it says more connectivity, more exposure and faster spreading viruses. Stephany Kahga