People have never stopped pursuing convenient life, and to meet this need, various technologies are constantly being pushed forward. Just as people have just learned to enjoy the huge convenience brought by network technology, information technology manufacturers are already depicting another larger and more beautiful scene for us, that is, wireless networks.
The wave of "what can the Internet do" has passed, and "how to use the Internet" will become the focus of a new round of competition. This new round of network development is striving to allow wireless signals to cover every corner of the world, trying to enable people to connect to the global network at any time, anywhere, and through any device. However, when more cables are replaced by wireless signals that are invisible to the naked eye, whether users can obtain sufficient security will become one of the questions that must be answered. It's like putting all the eggs in the same basket. The huge signal system covering the surface of the earth can not only make our lives better, but also may take away all our sense of security in a flash.
Wi-Fi
The main security issues of Wi-Fi
Hidden dangers of safety functions
Design-wise, Wi-Fi relies on the main force of security in terms of security is WEP (Wired Peer-to-Peer Secrecy) encryption, but this protection method has proven to be ineffective. More importantly, there are some problems with WEP encryption itself. WEP defines a 24-bit field as the initialization vector (IV), and the vector will be reused.
Design and usage issues
In order to be quickly configured and applied by most manufacturers, the factory settings with high safety factors are not used. Many users do not understand how to configure it, and often do not configure wireless network devices securely.
How to make Wi-Fi safer
Pay attention to SSID
An SSID is an identifier for a wireless network and the default SSID of the device should not be used where possible.
In addition, the Wi-Fi network set to be closed does not respond to those wireless devices that set SSID to Any and does not broadcast SSID within the wireless network, which can reduce the possibility of wireless network discovery.
Strengthen WEP
Limited WEP encryption is at least much better than not using WEP, so a basic principle is to set up the WEP key with the highest strength possible.
Regularly change keys
Not necessarily all environments require weekly key changes, but key changes should be considered at least once a quarter. Over time, a wireless network that never changes its keys will have a significant decline in security.
Filter computer
By specifying a specific address set, you can try to ensure that only authorized computers can access the wireless network.
Security advice for enterprise applications
New ones tend to be better
If the company is building a wireless network, it should try to purchase products that use newer standards and protocols. For enterprises that are still using old standard equipment, they should pay close attention to the upgrade information released by manufacturers.
Utilize existing security resources
For enterprises with hardware firewalls installed, try to place wireless access points outside the firewall, which treats wireless traffic as untrusted. The firewall can be applied to filtering of wireless connections, thereby improving the security starting point.
Incorporate wireless into overall security policy
Since wireless access is relatively arbitrary, it is particularly important to regulate it. Employees should not be allowed to deploy wireless devices on the network arbitrarily, and the company's wireless network should be checked regularly.
Bluetooth (BlueTooth)
The main security issues of Bluetooth
Bluetooth technology is penetrating people's lives at an extremely fast speed. According to the forecasts of many market research institutions, the market demand for Bluetooth products will reach three times that of the current one in 2008. IDC expects that more than half of the phones in the factory will have built-in Bluetooth in 2008.
The first problem is product vulnerabilities
Although the Bluetooth specification has made good considerations for security at the beginning of its launch, the security of Bluetooth applications has not yet been perfect due to the influence of various factors such as manufacturer implementation and user habits.
The security issues currently found in the Bluetooth field mainly focus on information theft, device control and denial of service attacks, and most of the reasons are caused by defects in the manufacturer's design.
Basic ways to get attacked by Bluetooth
Some methods have been discovered to break through the security mechanism of Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth devices that are set to be invisible in theory cannot be discovered, but this is not the case. Using some software tools including redfang (Redfang, a hacker tool), you can discover Bluetooth devices in invisible mode.
PIN code cracks and destroys Bluetooth defense line
The main security authentication method between Bluetooth devices is pairing through PIN code. The most difficult problem at the moment is that the attackers have discovered some methods to crack the PIN code of Bluetooth devices. By initiating a mandatory re-pair and listening to the information transmitted during the pairing process, the attacker can enumerate the attack through brute force cracking, and finally obtain the PIN code information.
How to prevent Bluetooth attacks
If not used, it will not be enabled
For Bluetooth devices, a principle that should always be kept in mind is to turn it off when there is no need for Bluetooth connection.
Use high security levels
Bluetooth devices usually have three high, medium and low security levels, the highest level is device security. It should be noted that Bluetooth devices with device-level security enabled can also encrypt data. It is very important to have the highest level of security possible.
Pay attention to pairing
Since the process of cracking the Bluetooth PIN code depends on forced repairing, special attention should be paid to suspicious pairing requests. In addition, try to connect by memorizing pairing information when possible, rather than pairing each time you connect.
Business Bluetooth security advice
Develop security policies
Therefore, the handling of Bluetooth security issues needs to be well integrated into the overall security policy of the enterprise, and Bluetooth devices outside of security policy management should be resolutely disabled.
Follow related updates
Since most of the causes of Bluetooth security problems at present are caused by product defects, we should actively pay attention to the release of vulnerabilities of the Bluetooth devices used and update the product as soon as possible.
If the vulnerability is serious and cannot obtain updates from the manufacturer, you should carefully consider disabling the device or protecting it with additional security measures.
Background information
Bluetooth is another important wireless LAN technology. As it is increasingly integrated into mobile phones and PDAs, this technical standard based on small-scale wireless connections is in a stage of rapid growth. This technology usually follows the 802.15 standard to build a user cyberspace called WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network).
UWB
Application situation
UWB (ultra-wideband) is becoming a star in home wireless systems. At present, the International Organization for Standardization is actively formulating UWB standards, and my country's 863 plan is also starting to develop UWB fields. In terms of the market, many manufacturers are currently working to apply UWB to home systems such as HDTV.
Safety Technology
The technical characteristics of UWB determine that the technology is relatively safe. Because this technology was required to have extremely difficult eavesdropping characteristics when developed by the military. UWB transmission is characterized by extremely short pulse signal periods (often nanoseconds or picoseconds), and the transmission power of these signals is lower than the noise level of traditional radio reception devices, so it is difficult to receive using common radio frequency reception devices. In addition, UWB internal keys are also encrypted using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), and have anti-interference mechanisms and self-recovery capabilities to fight various transmission failures. Therefore, using UWB technology can establish a very safe and reliable transmission system.
Issues worth paying attention to
No obvious security defects have been found in UWB technology yet. Perhaps more problems will be found after a large number of UWB products are released.
Due to export restrictions, the number of key digits that can be obtained in different countries and regions varies. If the product uses 40-bit key encryption, the system will be relatively fragile; if the military standard 256-bit key version is obtained, the UWB system will be very powerful, so you should pay special attention to this when purchasing products.
In addition, since the UWB transmission distance is very limited, it must be combined with a wired system in many home applications to play a role, which makes it necessary to consider the situation after integration with a wired system both in the product design stage and in the security protection work of the actual environment.
Background information
UWB (Ultra Wide Band), also known as "ultra wideband", comes from the results of a military radar technology research and was applied to civilian products in 2002. UWB's power consumption is less than five thousandths of that of Wi-Fi, with a minimum transmission rate of 100Mbps and a maximum of 1Gbps. This technology is similar to the original Bluetooth 1.0 standard and is mainly used for data transmission within 10 meters.
WiMAX
The most popular wireless technology
Considering the importance of security to wireless broadband, IEEE has paid more and more attention to the definition of security functions in the standards when formulating specifications, which makes WiMAX based on wireless metropolitan area network standards have a better starting point in the design stage. As one of the most highly favored wireless technologies in the past two years, WiMAX has made active efforts in security.
Current standards of safety hazards
The newer 802.16d standard provides additional security by defining a confidentiality sublayer in the MAC layer. The confidentiality sub-layer mainly includes two protocols: data encryption and encryption and key management. The data encryption and encapsulation protocol defines the encryption algorithms and methods supported by 802.16d, while the key management protocol defines the way to distribute keys from the base station to the user terminal. In addition, the DES algorithm used in 802.16d only supports 56-bit keys, which is not enough to face attackers' cracking capabilities today.
New standards are safer
The 802.16e standard is being formulated, and WiMAX devices that support 802.16e are likely to be available in 2006. In 802.16e, two high-quality encryption standards can be used: DES3 or AES, and a sufficiently complete authentication mechanism is provided through the combination with the EAP protocol.
802.16e is most likely to refer to the latest wireless LAN standard 802.11i, and use the four-time mobile phone system to enhance the strength of the encryption and authentication process. In comparison, Wi-Fi adopts a combination of AES encryption and PEAP authentication.
In addition, the standards formulated by the WiMAX Alliance also try to define special on-board security processors, which can provide a more stringent protection mechanism for WiMAX devices.
Background information
WiMAX is another rising wireless transmission technology. However, WiMAX's more reasonable positioning should be in the wireless wide area network market. The technical standard followed by WiMAX is 802.16, which is mainly used to define the terminal access part of broadband wireless access. In relatively remote areas where the cost of installing wires is high, WiMAX will provide a good solution for ISPs to solve the last mile problem.
3G
Compared with previous wireless communication network technologies, 3G has made great progress in both functions and performance, and has also made great improvements in security performance.
3G security features
3G uses a variety of advanced technologies including random keys, which can provide more solid underlying support for signal transmission.
At the same time, 3G uses two-way authentication method, which can provide complete verification and protection measures.
3G security issues
Encryption is not omnipotent
Since most encryption systems are controlled in the hands of European and American organizations and manufacturers, we may not be able to repair and control them in time.
IP network security
Since IP-based facilities are widely used in 3G networks, a large number of security problems existing in IP networks can also pose a threat to 3G networks.
Attacks will always exist
Even theoretically speaking, there doesn't seem to be a technology that can be completely immune to attacks. 3G is no exception. It has been confirmed that 3G networks may still be affected by attacks such as eavesdropping and fraud.
Things to note when choosing 3G
The advanced nature of 3G networks and the trend of mobile applications mean that more and more personal and enterprise applications will run on 3G networks in the future. Although there is not much room for choice in terms of service providers, it is still very useful to know the technical architecture and technical standards adopted by each service provider in detail. Especially for users who have special requirements for safety performance, it should at least ensure that the selected system can add additional protection.
Background information
3G (third generation packet-switched cellular wireless communication network) provides a large transmission bandwidth based on a cellular wireless communication network with a large coverage range. What’s more important is that 3G network is based on IP. In other words, not only data, but also voice signals will be transmitted based on IP protocol, thereby providing higher service quality and manageability.
RFID
RFID security is ignored
Unlike other wireless technologies that mainly aim to transmit data, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Technology) is mainly used for identification and verification. Since the current main application areas of RFID do not require high privacy, many users are still in a stage of neglecting RFID security issues.
Fragile RFID system
At present, the attacks against RFID systems mainly focus on interception of tag information and cracking of this information. After obtaining the information in the tag, the attacker can use the RFID system unauthorized use by forgery and other means. Research results show that it is possible to steal information without contacting RFID devices.
RFID security is long
RFID encryption is not absolutely secure. RFID security protection mainly relies on the encryption of tag information, but the protection provided by the current encryption mechanism can make people completely reassuring.
If an RFID chip is poorly designed or not protected, there are many ways to obtain the chip structure and data. In addition, relying solely on the technical characteristics of RFID itself cannot meet the security requirements of RFID system.
Additional security measures must be taken into account when applying RFID, such as adding the level of encryption protection, and formulating some protection standards on the upper layer of RFID.
Background information
RFID is a wireless radio frequency-based recognition technology. Due to various reasons such as frequency band compatibility, global unified industrial standards have not yet been formed. Now more and more RFID products are being used in practice, especially in the field of logistics. Many experts have predicted that RFID will be implanted into every object or even the human body to form a global Internet of Things. It can be said that RFID has a very broad development prospect and may become a basic facility in the future society.
Incorporate wireless into security policies
According to Gartner's forecast, handheld devices that can access the Internet will reach the PC level by the end of 2005, and the "wireless hot zone" is also rapidly transitioning from airports and hotels to blocks. This means a completely new Internet access model and the resulting new wave of attacks are taking shape.
Through the previous security analysis of several mainstream wireless technologies, we can find that compared with the wired network world, wireless network security problems are much less and the types are relatively single.
Wireless connections and wireless devices are much more complex than wired systems. Once an enterprise ignores the wireless security issue, the attacker will be able to enter the enterprise in a drastic manner and destroy it. At the same time, the security facilities built by the enterprise on the wired system will be useless. This means that wireless security prevention has become a new issue in the field of information security, and every user who uses wireless must recognize and solve it.
Wireless technology has security defects
Overall, most wireless technology standards provide a good foundation in terms of security, especially wireless technologies such as WiMAX and UWB that appear later, which are seeking market recognition. However, due to product design and implementation issues, any type of technology will inevitably produce some safety defects.
Wi-Fi, as one of the pioneers in wireless applications, has exposed many security weaknesses. Although security has improved greatly in the new wireless LAN standards such as 802.11i, a large number of products that comply with the old 802.11b standards are already running around the world. In fact, these relatively old products are still being sold and produced.
This fact has a double inspiration: first of all, although the security characteristics displayed to us by technologies such as UWB have exceeded the boundaries of the civilian market.
Another significance is that in addition to drawing on the design experience of previous generations, the newly launched wireless technology standards may be considered in advance for the update of the specifications.
In addition, it is worth mentioning 3G and RFID. These two wireless technologies have the potential to significantly improve the lives of individual consumers, while also bringing more privacy concerns. In addition to implementing security protection, how to deal with privacy issues has gone far beyond the scope of security technology, which also shows the social characteristics of wireless technology as the power to transform global network forms.
From the reality, most of the wireless devices put into use are still in a state of insufficient protection. The primary issue in ensuring wireless security is to apply a formal security processing process like a wired system, while focusing on cultivating users' security awareness and security skills, so as to introduce wireless security issues into the right track as soon as possible.
Enterprise wireless security suggestions
Closely monitor enterprise wireless facilities
Since the widespread popularity of 802.11b products, understanding the coverage of enterprise wireless signals has become one of the primary steps in implementing wireless security. However, today, we also need to understand more detailed situations within enterprise wireless coverage.
For example, which devices are communicating within the signal range, which devices are not authorized, whether there are devices that are intercepting the signal transmission, etc.
These jobs may require some dedicated equipment, but there are still many things to do without enough equipment. Good device management and general sniffing procedures can also be found that wireless connections that should not appear in the network.
Apply encryption correctly
First, choose the appropriate encryption standard. This is quite important because many wireless technologies can choose different encryption methods. Wireless systems cannot exist in isolation, especially in enterprise environments, so the encryption method must match the upper-level application system. If applicable, try to choose an encryption method with a higher number of key bits. As for the current situation, the 128-bit key length should be ensured as much as possible.
Verification is equally important
Encryption can protect information from being cracked, but it cannot guarantee the authenticity and integrity of the data. Therefore, when deploying a wireless system, it must be provided with a matching authentication mechanism. It can be used directly if the wireless system used has an authentication mechanism. However, like encryption, it is necessary to ensure that the authentication mechanism and other application systems can work together, and if necessary, the original authentication system of the enterprise can also be used to complete this work.
Incorporate wireless into security policies
For enterprise application environments, it is essential to incorporate wireless problems into the overall security strategy of the enterprise. This can ensure that wireless security is implemented in a complete and reasonable manner, and if wireless and wired security issues cannot be handled in a unified manner, it will undermine the security of the entire network. All the information security content of enterprises, including what to do, what to do, who will do it, how to do it, etc., should be organized around a unified goal. Only in this way can a healthy and effective security system be created.