Security Issues in Wireless Systems The issue of security of computer systems and networks, especially security of wireless networks and systems has become essential, given the dependence of people on these systems in their daily life. This chapter presents the main issues for wireless networks and the need to secure access to such systems; any breach to such systems may entail loss of money, loss of national security information, or leak of such information and secrets to unwanted parties including competitors and enemies (see Section ) | Wireless Networks. P. Nicopolitidis M. S. Obaidat G. I. Papadimitriou and A. S. Pomportsis Copyright 2003 John Wiley Sons Ltd. ISBN 0-470-84529-5 12 Security Issues in Wireless Systems The issue of security of computer systems and networks especially security of wireless networks and systems has become essential given the dependence of people on these systems in their daily life. This chapter presents the main issues for wireless networks and the need to secure access to such systems any breach to such systems may entail loss of money loss of national security information or leak of such information and secrets to unwanted parties including competitors and enemies see Section . Then in Section we review the types of attacks on wireless networks. Section presents the classes of services of any reliable security system including confidentiality nonrepudiation authentication access control integrity and availability. Section presents the main aspects of the Wired Equivalent Privacy WEP Protocol. Section introduces the security aspects of mobile IP. Section investigates the main weakness of the WEP protocol. Then Section presents virtual private network services as a cost-effective and secure scheme. Finally we conclude by highlighting the main ideas presented in the chapter. The Need for Wireless Network Security A wireless local area network is a flexible data communication system implemented as an extension to or as an alternative to the wired local area network. Wireless LANs transmit and receive the data over the air using the radio frequency technology thus minimizing wired connections. Thus wireless LANs combine data connectivity with user mobility. Wireless LANs have gained strong popularity in a number of vertical markets and these industries have profited from the productivity gains of using hand held terminals and notebook computers to transmit real-time information to centralized hosts for processing. Today wireless .
