You would have to be living in a cave not to have heard about the problems with wireless security for networking. Even as more organizations (and homes) take advantage of wireless networking, we hear about "war driving" and that the security features were poorly designed.. . .
You would have to be living in a cave not to have heard about the problems with wireless security for networking. Even as more organizations (and homes) take advantage of wireless networking, we hear about "war driving" and that the security features were poorly designed.

WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) was intended to provide the same level of privacy over wireless networks that one would expect from wired networks. WEP is part of the IEEE 802.11 standard document, and defines how encryption must be used to support authentication, integrity, and confidentiality of packets transmitted using wireless equipment. ALl the wireless vendors support 802.11. The IEEE standards committee chose to use RC4, a proven encryption algorithm.

But designing systems that use cryptographic tools has often proved harder than it appears. Let's take a look at just how 802.11 networks work, and see just where the problems lie, and what, if anything, can be done to mitigate the problems.

The link for this article located at Rik Farrow / Spirit is no longer available.