Computing Without Wires (Or Even a Net): The Pitfalls, Potentials, and Practicality of Wireless Networking

Wireless Network Components (Wireless Local Area Networks, Bluetooth Radios, and Personal Digital Assistants) are presenting unparalleled convenience, potential gains in productivity, and huge security risks. Misunderstanding of capabilities, overstatement of security properties, and a fundamental lack of valid policies, can make for a very large risk in the workplace. Too often, “Management by Inflight Magazine” has led customers to embrace technologies that are not properly tested or even compatible with current or future system architectures or policies. Customers are often forced, by their upper management, to shoehorn system components or technologies without benefit of a lot of security analysis or even the knowledge of the devices prior to their introduction to the network. Built in capabilities of network components such as Bluetooth radios, and wireless LANs will be seen as not only improvements in communications, but potential holes, backdoors, and points of entry to otherwise secure networks.