Wireless Security Plans Vital

The escalating use of wireless technology demands formal corporate security policies, according to users and analysts at a Gartner security conference in Washington, D.C., last week. This includes putting in place dedicated intrusion-detection systems for wireless networks, locking down wireless-enabled systems or installing personal firewalls on them, and keeping all wireless LANs outside the corporate firewall, they add. Companies need to think beyond simply securing WLAN access points when looking at the security problems created by wireless use, says John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner.

Instead, the individual client devices inside a WLAN will pose the biggest security risks to corporations for the next several years, he says. Unprotected wireless client devices such as notebooks and handheld devices can be exploited as peers or access points to break into corporate WLANs where they can remain undetected indefinitely, Pescatore cautions.

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