The Rise of the 24/7 Security Scanning Access Point
An astonishing 90% of enterprise data breaches are caused by phishing attacks, costing businesses billions every year in lost revenue and downtime. Rogue devices are often the gateway to such attacks. The industries most vulnerable to hacking include finance, medicine, education, warehousing, airports and rail stations, government and distributed enterprise networks. These verticals operate at pervasive levels and handle highly sensitive data that could devastate businesses and customers in the wrong hands.
To make matters worse, the proliferation of IoT and edge devices has created even more wireless attack surfaces than ever, putting even more companies at risk.
Enter the 24/7 Security Access Point
Security access points come with extra dedicated scanning radios designed solely to scan for threats around the clock. Security APs create a persistent line of defense between enterprise networks and the criminals who want to hack them.
Why is this Important?
One of the most serious problems with a number of standard Wi-Fi access points is they only scan business networks for security threats during non-peak times. Their internal dual-band radios are tasked primarily with providing a Wi-Fi connection, leaving security scanning to be done when there is less traffic overloading the network.
Frankly, that’s not good enough.
Security APs are different. Because they scan constantly, they will detect rogue devices or malicious activity immediately, sending an alert to IT administrators who can act to isolate and disconnect the device or stop the malicious attack in its tracks. Security access points are built to address dangerous and costly cyberattacks.
So, what do these cyberattacks really look like? And how vulnerable are you?
Types of Cyberattacks
- Evil twin: Rogue access points can impersonate a legitimate network, simulating the same SSID and MAC address. Employees and visitors can be tricked into connecting to the rogue AP instead of the legitimate network, opening the door to having their personal information and activity hacked. Security APs can identify the threat immediately and neutralize it before any harm is done.
- Man-in-the-middle: When the SSID security type is “Open” or “WPA-Personal,” the attacker is able to secretly relay and alter the communication between an access point and wireless client who believe they are directly communicating with each other. The attacker makes independent connections with both victims and relays messages between them to make them believe their conversation is private, when in fact the entire conversation is controlled by the attacker.
- Invalid SSID misuse: Misconfigured access points simulate a company SSID from an unauthorized access point connected to your private network with a configuration that does not conform to your security policies, thus allowing insecure connections. This can happen anytime an AP isn’t set up properly, for example, leaving default settings unchanged.
- RF jammer: An RF jammer device will specify an SSID/channel to send packets or RF signals constantly, forcing other clients to be dropped by the overloaded channel.
- De-authentication frame: IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi protocol allows a de-auth frame to tell a client they have been disconnected from a network. The problem is that the protocol does not require any encryption for this frame. Thus, an attacker can send a de-auth frame at any time to the access point with a client’s MAC address.
Features to Look for in a Security AP
Security access points come with a number of key features designed to stop cyberattacks as well as bonus features to enhance the visibility and performance of your network:
- Wireless intrusion detection system (WIDS) for threat detection
- Wireless intrusion protection system (WIPS) for attack remediation
- Dedicated scanning radios for 24/7 wireless security monitoring
- RF spectrum analysis for identifying clean channels and ensuring all SSIDs are legitimate
- Wi-Fi 6 technology for high-performance Wi-Fi in high-density, multi-device environments
- Zero-wait DFS to avoid client disruption when radar is detected on DFS channels
- Bluetooth 5 low energy for BLE device detection and location-based extended advertising
Now is the chance for businesses of all sizes to get in on the ground floor of this revolutionary technology. As potential security risks grow in proportion to the expanding Wi-Fi grid, several manufacturers are taking the lead in making sure enterprise networks are protected at all times.
