Computer Associates International, Inc. has announced CA Wireless Site Management 4.0 (WSM), a management product for wired and wireless network infrastructures intended to reduce the security risks of Wi-Fi by identifying unauthorized devices and access points. . . .. Computer Associates International, Inc. has announced CA Wireless Site Management 4.0 (WSM), a management product for wired and wireless network infrastructures intended to reduce the security risks of Wi-Fi by identifying unauthorized devices and access points. CA WSM can be integrated with CA's eTrust security management solutions to enforce and manage enterprise security policies, and augments the CA's Unicenter operations management software to provide a single interface to manage a wireless infrastructure as an extension of a heterogeneous wired infrastructure. The link for this article located at Mobile Pipeline News is no longer available. . Delve into the features of CA Wireless Site Management 4.0, aimed at improving Wi-Fi security by detecting rogue access points.. Wi-Fi Management, Network Security, Unauthorized Devices, Security Policies, CA WSM. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
A rogue access point is not authorized by an organization's IT department for operation.) Setting up an access point is child's play. In addition to plugging the access point into a power source, all one has to do is connect one end of an Ethernet cable to an available Ethernet port, connect the other end to an access point and voila! A new Wi-Fi WLAN is born. . . .. Although most wireless security solutions target organizations that have deployed wireless networks, there is a class of solutions that target all companies--even those that haven't deployed wireless networks. These solutions detect the existence of rogue access points. (An access point is a transceiver that connects devices on a wireless LAN to the wired infrastructure. A rogue access point is not authorized by an organization's IT department for operation.) Setting up an access point is child's play. In addition to plugging the access point into a power source, all one has to do is connect one end of an Ethernet cable to an available Ethernet port, connect the other end to an access point and voila! A new Wi-Fi WLAN is born. Not all rogue access points are malicious. Until my IT department found out about it and asked me to shut it down, I ran a rogue access point for almost two years (long before Wi-Fi was popular). So early was it in the history of Wi-Fi, that the software for setting up, managing, and securing my Lucent-based 802.11b WLAN was both proprietary and not very user friendly. Knowing that hardly anyone was using Wi-Fi at the time, I didn't bother securing it. Eventually, the company standardized on a single vendor's technology for deploying and securing WLANs and, knowing about my access point through the grapevine, the IT department saw my rogue WLAN for what it was: a back door that bypassed all of the hard work and planning that went into building a secure Wi-Fi network. Nick Miller, CEO of wireless management solution provider Cirond, put the problem in simple terms. "Companies spend thousands upon thousands of dollars andman-hours on network security," said Miller, "and all it takes is a $30 access point to render that investment useless." The link for this article located at ZDNet is no longer available. . Although the emphasis of wireless security measures is primarily on enterprises, threats from unauthorized access points can still arise independently of wireless local area networks.. Rogue Access Point, Wireless Threats, Network Risk. . Anthony Pell
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