Wireless Vulnerability Management: What It Means for Your Enterprise
The instant and obvious benefits of WiFi have made WLANs a big success in public, private and enterprise sectors. Unfortunately, the adoption of correct security measures for WLANs is lagging far behind the fast pace at which these networks are being deployed. The presence of WiFi in most laptops and handhelds, the simplicity of independently installing WiFi networks and the ease of exploiting wireless vulnerabilities have together escalated the risks manifold. Even organizations that do not own a WLAN are equally at risk.
A wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS) is the prevalent approach for mitigating wireless security threats. However, businesses cannot always justify the cost of buying a full-fledged WIPS solution. Some consider the limited WIPS functionality in-built in certain WLAN infrastructure as sufficient. For others that do not own a WLAN, a common misconception is simply having a “no WiFi” policy makes their corporate network immune to wireless threats. A fundamental problem underlying this confusion is that businesses are unable to assess their security posture and fail to comprehend the severity of associated risks. In many cases, they complacently fall back to a “no action” plan leaving them exposed.
This white paper revisits the wireless security space, debunks common myths and presents wireless vulnerability management (WVM) as a proactive strategy to wireless security. WVM is a two-prong approach. Conducting wireless security audits to assess the security posture of a network is the first and necessary step towards managing wireless vulnerabilities. Following, a graded approach can be taken to remediate the vulnerabilities, pass regulatory compliance and secure critical assets.
