Network Security, Firewalls, and VPNs, 3rd Edition

Enhancing the Security of Wired Versus Wireless LAN Infrastructures

Wired networks offer a form of security that wireless networks lack. That security is the direct physical connection to a wired or cabled network. A hacker requires physical access to your facility or building. Usually, access control of the building can sufficiently prevent most external parties from accessing your private LAN.

Realize, however, that if you allow remote connection via telephone modem, high-speed broadband, or even basic Internet service, then you lose the advantage of a physical access limitation. Once remote access is allowed, the benefits of physical isolation disappear.

The same is true if you allow wireless connections into the network. Wireless networking ...