Blog / Two Key Components of Wi-Fi
Getting Wi-Fi policies right is just as important as setting it up securely.
It wasn’t that long ago that having a wireless network in your business was a novel rarity, but nowadays? Not having wireless everywhere in your business is just rare as having it used to be. Much like email, Wi-Fi has become ubiquitous, even though most people who use it don’t have any idea how works, or how it’s meant to. Alas, it’s understandable (though not forgivable) because many organizations don’t set their Wi-Fi up properly.
Mistakes can easily be made during the setup and deployment of networks, but they can also show up in the rules that form your policy. These mistakes, though often simple, can have a massively detrimental impact on your organization’s security. To avoid them, it’s important to understand when Wi-Fi is useful, how it should be setup, and why you should have a policy about it.
Wi-Fi Setup
First, think about how your Wi-Fi should be set up. If you intend to use wireless networks in your organization, use two; one for devices owned and controlled by the organization, and another for employees to connect personal devices too. If you don’t provide a dedicated network for both, staff will connect their personal devices to the business one and creating a (potentially serious) security risk. It costs practically nothing to have two networks, so plan ahead to use both. Depending on your business you may even want a 3rd one for use by the public. While the devices on the corporate Wi-Fi should be able to talk to devices inside the wired corporate network, none of the other Wi-Fi networks should be able to access anything other than the general internet; no internal assets!
Wi-Fi Policy
When running multiple wireless networks, you need to lay down the rules on what devices people can use to connect to each network. This is doubly true when it comes to connecting to resources outside the office on mobile devices using Wi-Fi networks your organization doesn’t control. Consider how Wi-Fi works; when you send a signal data is sent in all directions, which means anyone can listen. That’s not an immediate threat, but it does mean you need to ensure employees accessing corporate resources take precautions. That’s why having a policy which outlines the requirements is ultimately so important.
Once you understand a little bit about how Wi-Fi works, the importance of having a secure setup and strong policies is clear. As a side note, PIPA and PCI-DSS both require your organization to have a policy to cover Wi-Fi, so not only is it a good idea to improve your organization’s security, it’s often a legal requirement.
If you’d like help setting up a Wi-Fi network or developing your business’s wireless policy, please contact a TRINUS cybersecurity professional and get yourself some stress-free IT.
Today’s quote comes from the play Henry VI, Part 2: “Let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Be kind, courtesy your friendly neighbourhood cyber-man
