ATLANTA, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- AirDefense, the leader in 24x7 wireless
LAN security and monitoring, discovered wireless LAN attacks are evolving from
simple sniffing to complicated data injection and network manipulation while
monitoring the airwaves at DefCon 12, the annual underground hacking
convention held last week in Las Vegas.
"The types of attacks we are seeing are increasingly more sophisticated
than those of years past," said Richard Rushing, chief security officer of
AirDefense. "Whereas last year we noted basic denial of service and MAC
spoofing attacks, this year hackers have moved on to what we refer to as level
three attacks, where hackers are actually injecting traffic into the network
and manipulating data."
AirDefense identified an injection attack where attendees surfing the Web
would receive manipulated images and form data that they had not requested.
Previously, this attack was most often used on the wired side; however,
hackers taking advantage of the open, unencrypted traffic have learned to
adapt the technology to function in the wireless environment.
AirDefense also discovered a new Developer's Kit Denial of Service (DoS)
attack. This type of attack involves modifying firmware on a network card to
allow the cards to send data without having to wait for a signal from the
access point. This type of attack, equivalent to a chattering network card,
can knock people off the network, prevent other users from sending data, or
even allow an individual to take control of the network.
"This is an example of how theoretical attacks are becoming practical. The
only way to identify this type of attack is to use a monitoring system with
multiple analysis engines to detect anomalous behaviors. These types of
attacks are why we are continuing to add theoretical alarms based on
correlation across signature, behavior and policy engines to AirDefense. As
more instances of attackers using developer's kits occur we want to ensure our
customers are equipped to defend their network," said Anil Khatod, president
and CEO of AirDefense.
DefCon remains the defacto conference to view leading edge tools and
techniques. This year DefCon boasted the "Wall of Shame," a large screen that
was displaying passwords and identifying attendees that used "clear-text"
services over the wireless network, including email, Telnet and Instant
Messenger. Originally, the producers of the wall were using "Ethereal" to
capture the traffic and then parceling the data for user names and passwords.
By the second day of the conference the producers of the wall, having become
more adept, began using "Cain and Abel," a more sophisticated tool that
automatically captures passwords.
About AirDefense, Inc.
AirDefense is the thought leader and innovator of wireless LAN security
and operational support solutions. Founded in 2001, AirDefense pioneered the
concept of 24x7 monitoring of the airwaves and now provides the most advanced
solutions for rogue WLAN detection, policy enforcement, intrusion protection
and monitoring the health of wireless LANs. As a key element of wireless LAN
security, AirDefense complements wireless VPNs, encryption and authentication.
Based on a secure appliance and remote sensors, AirDefense solutions scale to
support single offices, corporate campuses or hundreds of locations. Blue chip
companies and government agencies rely upon AirDefense solutions to secure and
manage wireless LANs around the globe. For more information, go
to http://www.airdefense.net or call 770.663.8115.