Wireless security's future

Standards bodies and industry organizations are spending a great deal of time and money on developing and deploying next-generation solutions that address growing wireless network security problems. The 802.11i IEEE draft standard provides next-generation authentication, authorization, and encryption capabilities. The WiFi Alliance, a wireless industry organization, has jumped the gun and created the WiFi Protected Access (WPA) standard, a subset of the 802.11i draft. These new standards are more complicated than their predecessors but are more scalable and secure than existing wireless networks. They also dramatically raise the bar for attackers and administrators. The new standards will employ a phased adoption process because of the large installed base of 802.11 devices. Proper migration to 802.11i and mitigating the legacy wireless risks will be a bumpy road. However, the end result will provide users a secure base for mobile computing needs.