Wireless LAN: Security Issues and Solutions

Wireless local area network (WLAN) has been widely used in many sectors. The popularity gained is due to many reasons, such as ease of installation, installation flexibility, mobility, reduced cost-of-ownership, and scalability. However, regardless of the benefits, WLAN have some security threats. This paper begins by introducing the concept of WLAN. The introductory section gives brief information on the WLAN components and its architecture. In order to examine the WLAN security threats, this paper will look at Denial of Service, Spoofing, and Eavesdropping. The paper will then explain how Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) works, which is the IEEE 802.11b/WiFi standard encryption for wireless networking. The discussion of WEP continues by examining its weaknesses, which result in it being much less secured than what was originally intended. This paper will also cover the new standards to improve the security of WLAN such as the IEEE 802.1x standard, which comprises of three separated sections: Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and 802.1x itself. This paper will also list down several products that will assist users to protect their wireless networks from attacks. Finally, this paper ends with the conclusion of highlighted issues and solutions.