The Wi-Fi Protected Access Work in LAN - Research Paper Example

ABC Project Wi-Fi Protected Access in LAN (Local area network) Wi-Fi Protected Access in LAN (Local area network) ENGINEERINGCOMMUNICATIONCENTRE SANDFORD FLEMING B670, 35 ST. GEORGE ST., UNIV. OF TORONTO, TORONTO, ON. 2. Abstract: The Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) work in LAN (Local Area Network) is upcoming and very important aspect that needs to focus on getting the best protection solution to their users. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is basically the subpart of 802.11i and more effort is applied in this area to make protection in future environments. Different types of standards are applied to the achievement of a high level security. The Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) required protection of multi-types. It includes the protection of Data, reliable control of the access, and security of Wireless LAN. WPA is seriously focused among researchers for providing the best solutions in this field. 3. Introduction: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is beneficial for home based users, as well as business users. The formal certification is required in the field of wireless LAN communication so making the security at the highest level that is essential. In the organizations, the use of authorized access is essential for developing a connection between users. The secured connection is maintained by the organizations and authorized access is allowed. The WPA is also equally important in a home and small offices, because sharing of data is always confidential for personal home users and in SME (Small and Medium Enterprise). In a home based and small offices the Wi-Fi connection always asks for secure type of password for authorized access (Wi-Fi Alliance, 2014). The AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is introduced for making the protection towards hardware. The three different stages of security the novel IEEE 802.11b standard, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and the IEEE 802.11i protocol. The Wi-Fi Alliance is established with the sub-part of the standard 802.11i and introduces the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). The IEEE 802.11 b composed of stages, the address filtering process of Ethernet MAC (Media Access Control), Service Set Identifiers (SSID), and the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) (Mathews and Hunt, 2007) 4. Background: There are solutions available that can secure the wireless LAN. Virtual Private Network (VPN) is one of the solution that is applied. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides a secure connection by having the services of Frame Relay, Virtual Circuits (VC) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). The IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based VPNs are latest technology in Virtual Private Network (VPN). Different types of protocols are used for making enable the protection in VPN. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is another solution for having secure and reliable wireless network. WEP can also provide casual snoopers protection. (Wi-Fi Alliance, 2014). The technical comparison between Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a part of literature that explores many aspects of security. The security measures regarding the wireless network are the important issues in this growing age of information technology, the data travel across the wireless network is captured by hackers as illegal access. This is a huge loss for wireless network users and requires a rigid type of security standards and norms for communication in wireless networks in a safe environment (Lashkari, Mansoori and Danesh, 2009). WPA-PSK is an attempt to destroy the security of wireless networks, in this way a dump file and a dictionary file is thrown on the wireless network to capture the required passpharase. Algorithms are used for making the destruction of the attacked wireless network (MacMichael, 2005). The weaknesses and vulnerabilities are found and proved in wireless communication networks, after the appliance of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). This explores the new way to the development of Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2). The WPA 2 is a construction based on two stages, encryption and authentication. The novel standards are applied to the achievement of advance encryption techniques. For making the authentication process more effective, the key generation is used.The key generation procedure is hierarchy based where Master Key (MK), Pairwise Master Key (PMK), and Pairwise Transient Key (PTK) are generated for improving the authentication protective (Arana, 2006). The threat of DoS (Denial of Serives), like the data flooding, availability attacks, and RF jamming are some examples that can harm the wireless network due to the physical layer and WPA2 is not able to deal with such issues (Bellardo and Savage, 2003). 5. Discussion: The Wi-Fi LAN security could be achieved through VPN’s, 802.1X, and some other technologies. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) will deliver the data protection in the air, the robust control of access to all kinds of users. The software installed for WPA requires the regular updates to meet with the latest threats in networking. The other source of security is the use of secure use of the wired material, and it comes under the Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP). Still the room is open for making improvements in the WEP for the achievement of optimal solutions (Wi-Fi Alliance, 2014). The link layer encryption is applied for making a network secure. The physical level protection is achieved through this concept of Wi-Fi protection. The polices of shared users and other related matters are established for secure and reliable processing in the Wi-Fi based LAN network. The assessment of security for Wi-Fi LAN is directed from the Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) to Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) (Yasir and Yang, 2004). The issues are still there in the IEEE 802.11 in the process of address filtering. The network sniffing tool captures the traffic for address filtration. The spoofing attacks are common in network, so this activity needs more effort to improve and meet the security measures in an efficient way. The prob request can become the reason to harm the SSID (Berghel and Uecker, 2004). 6. Conclusion: The paper is about the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the efforts in this particular area are also part discussion. It is analyzed that there are many sources available for making the Wi-Fi LAN secure and having a reliable communication. As the rapid changes are part of information technology, so the network always demands latest techniques for making the protection in an efficient way. The regular update is the essential part of every kind of security providers.The reliable transmission of information maximizes the data sharing process among home based users, small and medium level business, and a large scale business. A high level of protection increases the trust of clients and satisfaction of users and their organizations. References: Arana, P. (2006). Benefits and Vulnerabilities of Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2). INFS 612 – Fall 2006. Berghel, H., and Uecker, J. (2004). Wireless infidelity II:airjacking. Com. ACM, 47(12): 15-20. Bellardo and Savage, S. (2003). 802.11 Denial-of-Service Attacks: Real Vulnerabilities and Practical Solutions. In Proceedings of the USENIX Security Symposium 2003. Lashkari, A.H.,Mansoori . M., and Danesh, A.S. (2009). Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) versus Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPAIEEE In 2009 International Conference on Signal Processing Systems, 15-17 May, 2009 on Singapore, IEEE, pp.445-449. MacMichael, J.L. (2005). Auditing Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) Pre-Shared Key Mode”; Linux Journal, 2005(137) p.2. Mathews, M., and Hunt, R. (2007). Evolution Of Wireless Lan Security Architecture To IEEE 802.11i (WPA2). Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Yasir, Z., and Yang. T. (2004). Wireless LAN security andlaboratory designs. J. Comput. Small Coll., 2004. 19(3), 44-60. Wi-Fi Alliance (2014). Wi-Fi Protected Access. Wi-Fi is everywhere. Avaiable from http://www.wi-fi.org/file/the-state-of-wi-fi-security-wi-fi-certified-wpa2-delivers- advanced-security-to-homes Accessed 07-11-2014. Read More