How to secure your wireless network

I'm now a contributing editor for TechNet Magazine. Everyone with a TechNet subscription automatically receives it; if you don't have one, you can still get the magazine free. The magazine's published three issues so far: Winter 2005, Spring 2005, and November-December 2005. You'll especially enjoy the "Hacking" series in the first issue, where Jesper writes up his "Anatomy of a hack" conference session that always seems to score a hundredth of a point or so higher than me! (LOL) Good news: the magazine is increasing its frequency; it'll be bimonthly through June 2006, then monthly after that.

Anyway, in the November-December 2005 issue, I've co-written (note I don't say "co-authored"; "author" is not a verb!) with Kathryn Tewson an article on wireless security for the Security Watch column. We describe the threat, some wireless security basics, how not to secure a wireless network (hint: bogus advice regarding SSIDs and MAC addresses figures prominently here), and details on access control and encryption. We also describe three common scenarios.

Read through the article for information on the various technologies and our recommendations -- which is pretty simple these days: WPA or WPA2 are really the only logical choices. While you're at it, subscribe to the magazine, too. I think you'll enjoy it. Look for more articles of mine in the magazine over time; for the January-February 2006 issue, I'll have an article describing VPN quarantine (just sent it to the editors today, actually).