NetworksEssay title: NetworksIntroductionSince the early 1990’s there has been a tremendous growth in the wireless community. The modern idea of wireless networking was first introduced in the late 60’s at the University of Hawaii with the ALOHANET. The ALOHANET was used to connect the different campus locations on the Hawaiian Islands. “The history of wireless networking stretches farther back than you might think. It was over fifty years ago, during World War II, when the United States Army first used radio signals for data transmission. They developed a radio data transmission technology, which was heavily encrypted. It was used quite extensively throughout the campaign with the US and her allies. This inspired a group of researchers in 1971 at the University of Hawaii to create the first packet based radio communications network. ALOHNET, as it was named, was essentially the very first wireless local area network (WLAN).” [2]
Figure 1 – Simple WLAN using 802.1x from Lecture13 notes.Frequency-hopping spread spectrumThe implementation of a wireless LAN is done with the use of radio-frequency technology. The two technologies that are used in wireless LANs that include frequency-hopping and direct-sequence spread-spectrum. “Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver.”[3] This technology was developed during WWII by the Army Signal Corps in a system called SIGSALY. SIGSALY was initially used for communication between Roosevelt and Churchill; this was not known for some years because the development of SIGSALY was classified top secret.[8] Under this type of communication more bandwidth is used than the usual transmission in which only a single frequency is used. This increased bandwidth is due to the signal being spread over a greater number of frequencies. FHSS is the process of hopping from one frequency to another by the entire list of host in the network. Under this process “a narrow-band carrier is shifted in discrete increments of frequency. The frequency shift is based on a pattern generated by a code sequence that spreads transmission over a wide frequency band”. [6] The order of the frequencies that are used is then repeated once the entire list has been used. If a frequency is already being used by another device that frequency be eliminated which helps to eliminate interference.
Direct-sequence spread-spectrumThe direct-sequence spread-spectrum method is performed by altering the message using a digital code, which increases the size of the message. “The code bits represent a redundant bit’s pattern generated by the direct-sequence spread-spectrum technology that is applied to each information bit to be transmitted. This bit pattern is referred to as a chip or chipping code”(Held, pg. 232). There is a requirement of additional bandwidth because of this increase in message size. An example of this would be a message of 101 and a chipping code of 010. The resulting transmission of the message would be 101010101, with addition modulo 2. The process of obtaining this would be to take the first bit of the message and add it to each bit of the chipping code modulo 2, which would give us 101. The process is continues for each of the remaining message bits to give us the transmitted message of 101010101. This process adds redundancy to the message that allows the receiver to recover bits if some are lost or inverted during the transmission process without the user having to send the message again. This process is also secure if the chipping code is not known.
802.11 Wireless NetworksNetwork and data security is of the highest importance for nearly all users whether they are using a business network or their home network. Maintaining a secure network is a constant battle and adding wireless nodes to the network make this task almost impossible. While the implementation of the wireless standard by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) known as 802.11 does provide for a variety of measures and other measures not included in 802.11 are used in an attempt to secure the wireless network and the data integrity they are not perfect. [9] The three main methods that are used to try and secure the 802.11 implementation are the use of the Extended Service Set ID (ESSID), Media Access Center (MAC) access list and the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption scheme. The IEEE has several approved protocols under 802.11 and others that are in development.
[17] “802.11 Networking and the Threat of Internet Distributed Denial of Service Attacks” from MITM on May 17, 2014.
In 2013, the MITM Foundation set a deadline to submit an ESSID (ESID) to the IEEE Corporation for their Future Security Program (ISP). This is the first time in the MITM history that a major consortium such as Google has ever been involved in creating a document with ESSIDs (ESIDs) issued by the IEEE. ESSIDs can only be issued through one security vendor, regardless of any issues resulting from a given product. In 2013 the IEEE International Security Forum raised the topic of how to protect ESSIDs from attack.[18] “A key feature to identify a potential security vulnerability in the future is a security model developed in cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2006 , and the Federal Computer Emptying and Protection Act of 1984 “,[19] which provide a clear roadmap for a future level of regulation through the Federal Communications Commission.
[20] “Access Point Protocol [Apto],” from the IEEE Working Group on Securing a Secure Network, at the American Society of Network Engineers Symposium on Securing a Secure Infrastructure June 22, 2010.
Access Point Protocol [Apto], the main term for the IEEE’s Apto protocol, is a protocol that protects the network by providing the network with access keys that are unique identifiers that correspond to a group of keys. The Apto protocol provides the system the ability to access, modify, and modify the network’s traffic, and is often used in ways outside of its scope by systems to keep the network from becoming “secured”. It is used by the Internet for connecting people to remote machines to watch the Internet, for example. The protocol also provides additional protection from traffic attacks, including over the Internet and mobile communications, and to the unauthorized transmission of information by third parties.[20] Internet access is a term used to encompass all forms of public communication that have both public and private data traffic at the highest levels by linking their signals directly to one another. The Internet access service on the Internet has many services, from “internet of things” services for the Web to “Internet of Things and other ways to interact with things online to services like Internet Access . The Internet connectivity is an emerging technology that makes it possible for anyone to access the Internet, and its usage has become a key part of daily life. According to the Web, one of the largest Web sites, Gmail, was originally created by the Internet Archive, and while the Archive is credited with the creation of hundreds of thousands of Web pages, Wikipedia is more known as the World’s Own Most Visited Web Site by Alexa. The World’s Own Most Visited Web Site includes nearly 10.5 million unique users of Wikipedia. The Internet has since existed as a universal network that carries out vast amounts of data and communication, which means that it is possible to build a network that is capable of accessing all types of information.
[21] The IEEE Working Group on Securing a Secure Infrastructure (WSISO), “Connect-to-Net: The Internet of Things and the Internet of Things Security Principles” at Security World Group Symposium, at the IEEE Working Group on Securing a Secure Infrastructure, Spring 2011.
WSISO establishes a clear concept of the Internet as a system of interconnected networks that has become part of the general Internet. WSISO’s “Security Principles” include fundamental privacy rules, security policies, legal procedures, tools, and user control strategies