Those three adjectives are related to wireless local area network (WLAN) devices.
Let's start by a couple of quotations.
"The average person buys it because they say, 'Hey, I can run my computers off of one network'" and one Internet connection, says Peter Johnson, former CIO of the Army's Program Executive Office of Enterprise Information Systems in Fort Belvoir, Va. "The technology is great. It's inexpensive. But this technology that's being sold for a couple hundred dollars doesn't come with a big red sticker that says, 'Warning, this is really insecure.'"
"It's just so cool," gushes Gartner's John Pescatore, describing a recent conference where Cisco Systems gave every attendee a wireless network card—and left the security up to individuals. People e-mailed Pescatore questions during a speech rather than raising their hands. Maybe they turned off file-sharing in their operating systems and used a virtual private network to secure their laptops. Maybe they didn't. But they ate up the technology like jelly rolls at break time.
Now, thanks to CIO Magazine, here is the Executive Summary.
By Gartner's estimates, one in five companies has a wireless LAN that the CIO doesn't know about, and 60 percent of WLANs don't have their basic security functions turned on. Governed by the 802.11 standard, WLANs transmit data by radio waves, signals that can be picked up by a $70 wireless network card. An audit for WLANs will help locate rogue installations and also determine how far the signal is transmitting. If the signal is stronger than it needs to be, the amplification level often can be turned down. Beyond that, CIOs have five options, depending on the sensitivity of the data and how the wireless devices are used. They can make sure there is full use of built-in security features, wall off the WLAN from the rest of the network, encrypt data end to end, implement proprietary security add-ons or wait on the creation of standards for new levels of encryption.
Are you using Wi-Fi? Are you happy with it? Good, but think about your privacy and the security of your data. Listen to the suggestions contained in this article.
Source: Sarah D. Scalet, CIO Magazine, July 1, 2002 Issue
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