Silence on the Wire

Wi-Fi Vulnerabilities

It would be unfair to close this chapter and ignore the problems with the wireless replacement to Ethernet: wi-fi.

Wireless networks based on the IEEE 802.11 protocol are gaining momentum in the corporate world, as well as among ordinary home users. Unfortunately, even long before gaining widespread acceptance, and even though they were designed with the intent to maintain a level of additional security over wired hookups, wi-fi proved fairly difficult to deploy properly, perhaps because it attempted to follow in the footsteps of its older brother a bit too closely.

The 802.11 standard is, in its operating principles, not that much different from Ethernet. It uses a traditional “one can talk, others listen” media access control ...