Security threats analysis of wireless local area network

Abstract

There is a geometric growth in the manufacturing and sales of wireless network devices presently. This growth is not connected with the advantages ushered in by wireless network e.g user mobility, the flexibility of the network, enable network connection for different kinds of devices, increased productivity, etc. However, because the wireless network is broadcast in nature, it has numerous security challenges, if these security challenges are not addressed, different attacks can be lunged against the network such as theft of data, unauthorized access to the network, denial of service, etc. These security challenges are caused majorly by the body implementing the data confidentiality protocol and the wireless device users. Nowadays, almost all wireless access points (APs) are secured with Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) because hitherto WPA2 is known to provide the highest form of security to wireless local area network (WLAN). Consequently, we investigated various wireless network security protocols, focusing more on WPA2 since it is the latest amongst the protocols. Real-time dictionary attack against WPA2 was carried out to prove the existence of flaws in the protocol. Hence, countermeasures were proposed to forestall these flaws in the system and; if the suggested measures are implemented, it will lead to the development of a more secure wireless network.