Discuss about the Critical Wireless and Mobile Security Vulnerabilities.
According to Hern, A. (2018). “All Wi-Fi networks’ are vulnerable to hacking, security expert discovers”. Wireless networks are much vulnerable since anyone can physically intercept network traffic as compared to wired connections.
Majority of the mobile devices nowadays support wireless network for example smartphones, computers with wireless network cards etc. These wireless network are not safe since the protocol that is being used to protect the Wi-Fi connections are vulnerable. Therefore user’s private information are being exposed to the malicious attacks such as eavesdropping and man in the middle attacks.
Wireless connections that are poorly configured have led attackers to inject malicious packets into the network for example attackers adding ransom ware on the network or by adding website links that has the payload for the ransom wares. People that are connected to wireless network are also vulnerable themselves since they may give out there personal information management. This can be done by an attacker through phishing techniques.
Spoofing and sessions attacks may occur in wireless network if an attacker used the identity of valid WLAN user. The attacker will use the valid IP address and valid MAC addresses. So the session of the valid user can be hijacked by the attacker. All the users’ private information will be accessible through this attack method.
According to Mathy Vanhoef, a security expert at Belgian university KU Leuven, discovered the weakness in the wireless security protocol WPA2, and published details of the flaw.“Attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted,” Vanhoef’s report said. “This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, and photos and so on” ().
An attacker may also fool legitimate wireless clients into connecting to the attacker’s own network by placing an unauthorized access point with a stronger signal in close proximity to wireless clients. The aim is to capture end-user passwords or other sensitive data when users attempt to log on these rogue servers.
Man in the middle attack over the wireless network. This is very hard to identify if this happens in any network. An attacker will route all the users’ traffics and decrypt the information. An attacker will be able to identity credentials being send over the network and decrypt it to a plain text. The attacker will be able to use target users’ credential for his own purpose.
Clear text password encryptions. If an organization computer is stolen anyone who will be able to access that computer storage can be able to retrieved wireless network SSID and its password. After attacker has identified network credentials he or she can launch an attack on other users by sniffing the internet traffics to gain other credentials such emails password.
Voice over IP. Voip is sent in an unencrypted format in a network. So any network conversation can be captured and recorded for further use by an attacker. They are third party tools that can be used to eavesdrop Voip communications such as Vomit, Cain and Abel.
Key Reinstallation attacks in one of the latest attack on WPA and WPA2 in wireless network. This type of attack affects reinstallation of pairwise transient key on wireless client and access point that is according to Top 3 Wi-Fi Security Vulnerabilities. (2018).This attack majorly affect clients and the component infrastructure of an access point.
When connecting to a wireless network users should confirm if the network is the correct or it’s a rogue hotspot. This will aid in protecting users from connecting networks with malicious activities management.
Limit access to the network. This can be done by allowing access to the specific devices. This can be done by done by setting routers to allow only devices with a certain mark address to communicate in the network.
Changing routers default settings. Every time a new router or old is used in the network, network administrator should not use the default router setting since most of the configurations are known to the attackers and this can lead to the network insecurity.
Turn off remote access for the routers. Some routers allows remotes access which can be exploited by the attackers if not turn off or set the strong password for the access for example telnet protocol which allows the attacker to exploit and gain entry into the network.
Keeping router up to date. Manufactures keep on releasing new updates for routers firmware. The updates are meant to fix security issues and improve performance on the routers. Therefore system administrator should update routers firmware every time manufacturer releases a new updates.
Users should also protect their devices from accessing roaming networks by turning off WIFI mode in their mobile devices. Roaming networks are not safe since some of them targets users to use so that they can obtain information from them.
Security assessments and audits are essential means for checking the security status of a wireless network and identifying any corrective action necessary to maintain an acceptable level of security. These assessments can help identify loopholes in the wireless network, such as poorly configured access points using default or easily guessed passwords and SNMP community words, or the presence or absence of encryption.
Due to the limited transmission capacity of a wireless network, a malicious attacker can easily launch a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack to bring down the network. Segmenting access point coverage areas can balance the loads on a wireless network and minimize any impact from DoS attacks.
Before installing WIFI network the area should be surveyed so that the area covering by wireless network should be limited therefore any intrusion can be detected. Also adjustment of radio frequencies using antennae can be control.
MAC address filtering can be considered the first layer of defense for wireless networks. With MAC address filtering enabled, only devices with pre-approved MAC addresses can see the network and be granted access to the network.
Security policies on wireless network should be set and clearly state the ownership of the policies implemented. After policies have been implemented, regularly review should be done to ensure security control when new risks are identified.
Also during WI-FI planning process access point location should be considered as the factor. This will ensure that the access point will be able to cover the identified area and ensure that signal cover only the required area without leaking to unidentified areas. Also the system administrator will be able to identify the target users of the wireless network.
Regular scanning of entire network should be schedule in any institution. This will ensure that unidentified network which may be set by attackers are identified. If identified further actions will be done by the institution.
Organization should educate users on wireless security policies for instance. Security is everyone responsibility and users should know that they will share the cost of the attack in case it happened. Also users should be aware of security risk when using public WIFI network. This will ensure that they safeguard their information.
Other third party tools such as VPN in a network can be used to ensure that users’ internet traffics are encrypted from any eavesdropping or man in the middle attacks that is according to The Ten Most Critical Wireless and Mobile Security Vulnerabilities – Help Net Security. (2018).This will harden the security infrastructure in any organization.
According to NETGEAR R7000 USER MANUAL Pdf Download. (2018) the following is the guide on how to set up a secured wireless network using Netgear Nighthawk R7000.
References
RegExp(‘tomsguide|optimizelypreview|cache|google|yahoo|bing|archive’, “. (2018). How to Set Up and Secure Your Netgear Nighthawk R7000P Router. Tom’s Guide. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://www.tomsguide.com/us/netgear-nighthawk-r7000p-ac2300-setup-guide,review-4107.html
Hern, A. (2018). ‘All wifi networks’ are vulnerable to hacking, security expert discovers. the Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/16/wpa2-wifi-security-vulnerable-hacking-us-government-warns
NETGEAR R7000 USER MANUAL Pdf Download. (2018). Manualslib.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018, from https://www.manualslib.com/manual/582801/Netgear-R7000.html
Top 3 Wi-Fi Security Vulnerabilities. (2018). Techopedia.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018, from https://www.techopedia.com/2/28536/networks/wireless/top-3-wi-fi-security-vulnerabilities
The Ten Most Critical Wireless and Mobile Security Vulnerabilities – Help Net Security. (2018). Help Net Security. Retrieved 10 April 2018, from https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2006/06/29/the-ten-most-critical-wireless-and-mobile-security-vulnerabilities/
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