Proposed Secure WLAN Architecture Based On Security Analysis Of An Existing Campus WLAN

Security for any network is imperative and HO-Poly LAN is no exception.Due to this,network administrators mostly direct their focus to securing their LAN with per user authentication to prevent eavesdropping.However,the security threats for LAN are enormously exacerbated with the introduction of wireless networks.This research work studies the security issues of WLAN on HO-Poly campus.Three(3)security settings are observed on HO-Poly WLAN namely,Open(unsecured),WEP and WPA/WPA2 Pre Shared Key(PSK).Of these security types the Open or unsecured configured APs are the most vulnerable followed by the WEP and the WPAA/WPA2-PSK.For the security settings on WEP and WPA/WPA2-PSK,the open source Backtrack 5r3 security cracking tool is used to reveal the Key configured on the APs.With the PSK revealed the WLAN then behaves as an Open(unsecured)configured AP thereby making it vulnerable to tunneling software like PD-Proxy to break through the firewall of HO-Poly LAN to gain access to LAN and the Internet.To remedy this problem a new WLAN architecture with WPA2 security type in an Enterprise mode is proposed.Here,a simulated model of the proposed WLAN architecture is designed using Cisco Packet Tracer software for HO-Poly WLAN In spite of WLAN's rapid growth,flexible nature and portability,increased productivity and lower cost of installation,security is a major drawback and is of key concern to wireless technologies.Due to its transmission medium,wireless networks are open to eavesdropping and jamming and they need quite more attention than their wired equivalents.Consequently,strategies need to be developed to mitigate security risks before integrating wireless technologies in any computing environment.The popularity of WLANs is a testament mainly to their convenience,cost efficiency and ease of integration with other networks and network components.The main merits of deploying WLANs include:convenience,mobility,productivity,deployment,expandability and cost(Choi et al,2008).While WLAN is replete with the convenience and benefits stated above it has its share of downfalls.The downfalls are primarily attributed to the great security risks that concern data integrity,user confidentiality and network availability.The risks associated with wireless networks are similar to those of the wired networks.Nonetheless,these risks are much more exacerbated thereby springing up new risks only linked with wireless networks.The most significant source of the risks in connection with wireless networks can be attributed to the mode of transmission,thus airwave(Karygiannis and Owens,2002).A world-wide wardriving effort carried out on over 200,000 access points in June 2004 discovered 60%access point running without cryptographic protection(then usingWEP)and over 30%with the default SSID set by the manufacturer(The Official Worldwide Wardrive,2004).Therefore,an efficient wireless security protection should be put in place to address these concerns to safeguard all user and network devices from malicious attacksAn unsecured or less secured wireless network becomes vulnerable to hackers who may gain unauthorized access to an organization's computer network through the wireless connections,bypassing any firewall protections.Managing a network therefore is more than just managing Ethernet or the WLAN.The introduction of WLAN is to extend and enhance the wired networks already available and ensuring all resources readily accessible by network users.This thesis identifies the vulnerabilities in WLAN on a campus and proposes an alternate method to avert these vulnerabilities.