In a previous series, Humphrey Cheung talked about how the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption scheme can be easily cracked. Snort and other IDS can be especially effective when dealing with wireless attacks. All it takes is a little bit of elbow grease to get it up and sniffing away at wireless traffic. Calling itself “the de facto standard for intrusion detection”, Snort is flexible, fast, and most importantly, free. Snort is an open source IDS that can be custom-tailored to fit your wireless network.

It is helpful to think of IDS as similar to burglar alarms: they will tell you that a break-in has happened, but leave it up to other systems to handle the break-in itself. They are not the be-all-end-all to security, but when combined with firewalls and other security tools they can be very powerful. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS for short) provide a way to detect these attacks even before they happen, while the intruder is still casing the place. Small- and home-office users are especially vulnerable, as they generally have more important things to worry about than securing their wireless assets and lack the resources of larger companies to devote to a security contact or team.īut all is not lost, as there are ways to verify the security of a wireless network despite the oxymoron that wireless security generally conjures to mind. Because of the nature of the technology, and the easily-broken encryption solutions that are currently out there, it becomes a question of not if, but when an attack will occur. Wireless security – two words generally spoken in the same tone as “jumbo shrimp” and “government organization”.

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