Hacking Wireless For Dummies

Valuable in my work as a consultant, installing and troubleshooting WiFi networks. The "ethical hacker" is a valuable tool.

I just installed my own home-based-business wireless network in May, and I have found this book to be incredibly useful in setting up security and also figuring out the odd interruptions and accessibility anomolies that tend to happen with wireless. I like to use this book to quickly find information about basically any security-related wireless topic. It is written clearly and explains what the various codes and messages mean. Of course the messages generated through a wireless system will look geek-like. However, the writing in the book is not geek-speek. This would make a good reference book for anyone in any size of organization to have if they use wireless. It is especially great for those with home wireless systems, as well as small- to medium-sized businesses that typically do not have staff solely dedicated for information security. If you rely upon yourself or others who are not technical to secure your wireless network, then you would definitely benefit from this book.

Demonstrating all of the weaknesses of each wireless security control that you can put in place, this book proves that Wireless will always be a Layer 2 problem by the in-ability to physically secure the network by it's physical location...period. They have shown me in this book that wireless should be treated like an Internet connection and apply as many controls as you can to prevent penetration. This resource is for users from home, small office, medium businesses, to large corporation's security personnel. This book covers the most common used wireless security measures to the more advanced wireless security standards that are not even fully supported by all wireless vendors yet (802.11i/WPA2). I recommend this book for anyone who has a wireless network or even thinking about it.

There are two or three reasons you would want to read this book. If you're responsible for the security of a wireless network, there are two possibilities: 1. someone has broken into your network, gotten sensitive information or used your system to send out 500,000 SPAM e-mails, or 2. they haven't broken in yet, and you're being pro-active (good for you). The third possibility is that you're looking for or even thinking about going to work as a wireless security expert. In all three of these cases, this is a good place to start. The book starts with a description of how to go attack your own system from the outside and thereby learning what an outside hacker could get by doing the same thing. Then when you find a hole in the security, it tells you how to secure it. One nice thing about this book, like all 'For Dummies' books is the writing style. It tells you what you want to know without being either too simple or so overloaded with jargon that you can't make sense out of it. Another nice thing is that this book tells you specifically what software/hardware devices you need to get to accomplish the tasks, and it does so without concentrating on multi thousand dollar expenses.

Think your wireless network is secure from unauthorized use or attack? It's probably not. I just finished reading Hacking Wireless Network For Dummies by Kevin Beaver and Peter T. Davis, and this is one of the most practical books I've ever read for testing a network against attack. Contents: Part 1 - Building the Foundation for Testing Wireless Networks: Introduction to Wireless Hacking; The Wireless Hacking Process; Implementing a Testing Methodology; Amassing Your War Chest Part 2 - Getting Rolling with Common Wi-Fi Hacks: Human (in)Security; Containing the Airwaves; Hacking Wireless Clients; Discovering Default Settings; Wardriving Part 3 - Advanced Wi-Fi Hacks: Still at War; Unauthorized Wireless Devices; Network Attacks; Denial-of-Service Attacks; Cracking Encryption; Authenticating Users Part 4 - The Part of Tens: Ten Essential Tools for Hacking Wireless Networks; Ten Wireless Security-Testing Mistakes; Ten Tips for Following Up after Your Testing Part 5 - Appendixes: Wireless Hacking Resources; Glossary of Acronyms Index The target of this book is the security professional involved in testing networks to make them more secure. There's a heavy emphasis on "ethical hacking", or learning how to test a network's security without doing harm or using the information in a destructive fashion. A security consultant using this book would learn how to pre-plan a test, work with the company to make sure they were properly authorized, and then write up the results in a professional manner. That aspect of the book is impressive, and it helps to frame the information in the right light (not as a textbook on how to break into networks). From a practical standpoint, this book excels. Each of the chapters covers the theory behind how or why a certain aspect of a wireless network would be vulnerable to an attack or exploit. Then the authors cover a number of open source and commercial software packages that are available to focus on that area. For instance, chapter 14 goes into why WEP encryption is flawed and how it can be broken with relatively little effort. It's followed by an explanation on how WPA addresses some of those issues. Finally you get coverage on available tools that are used to crack WEP and how you can use them to test your own network. Highly practical and heavy on application... If you're a security professional with responsibility for your organization's wireless network, you need to read this book. And if you're a techno-geek with your own wireless network, you'll want to get this book to play around. I know I will be doing a little hacking at Chez Duffbert...