5 Security Measures to Secure Your Corporate Wireless Network
Implementing wireless security measures is vital to keeping hackers out of your network. The following security measures should be implemented in every organization by either the IT Department or a Managed IT Services provider.
This is not everything you need to know, but it’s a good starting point for keeping your wireless network secure.
Change your SSID
Wireless access points come with a built-in SSID (Service Set Identifier or, basically, your network name) and password.
Hackers know the SSID names and can therefore easily hack into your wireless network if you do not customize your SSID. You can change this name in your wireless router settings.
User Authentication
WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access II) and Active Directory Authentication can both be used to keep your wireless network secure.
You want at least WPA2 security configured for your wireless network. Authentication will require a password for the wireless network, but in a corporate environment, you can also require authentication via Active Directory on your domain.
Disable DHCP
DHCP, or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, is the method by which your wireless router can randomly assign IP addresses to the devices on the wireless network.
When DHCP is enabled, the IP address assigned to a device may change periodically. These IP addresses are interchangeable between devices. Disabling DHCP and using static IP addresses which are assigned to each device is a good way to control which devices are allowed to have wireless access.
Mac Address Filtering
Every device which can access a network has a hard-coded MAC Address. The Media Access Control address is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller for use as a network address in communications within a network segment.
These addresses allow the hardware device to be associated with an IP address and identified on the network. By using MAC Address filtering, you can list the allowed devices in the settings of your wireless access point.
This is a good security measure because devices that are not known to the network administrators will not be allowed to access the wireless network.
Certificate Authentication
The use of certificates to authenticate users on the wireless network is another way to improve access security.
This is an advanced security measure that can help avoid spoofing attacks by hackers. In the context of information security, and especially network security, a spoofing attack is a situation in which a person or program successfully identifies as another by falsifying data to gain an illegitimate advantage.
MAC Address spoofing is duplicating a known MAC address and masquerading as that known device on your network.
Certificate Authentication uses certificates that are unique to each user and are installed on each device that the approved user will connect to your wireless network.
Don’t Leave the Back Door Open
You want to use as many of the security measures as possible to secure your wireless network, your team, and your valuable data.
Using only one or two is likened to locking the front door while leaving the back door propped open. Not what you want.
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