Applications and the Future - Codes: The Guide to Secrecy from Ancient to Modern Times - page 339

9.2 Wireless Security
The cell phone industry isn't really interested in providing security against
eavesdropping; it's not worth the trade-offs to them. What they are really in-
terested in providing is security against fraud, because that directly affects the
companies' bottom line. Voice privacy is just another attractive feature, as long
as it does not affect performance or phone size.
Bruce Schneier
— from Beyond Fear (see [240, pages 38 and 39])
Why Wireless? Wireless technology has reached the point where it can
reach any place on the world, and this success has resulted in its beingemployed
in the computingworld on a wider basis throuh distributed computingover
networks. Hence, people worldwide may access and share information on a
global scale. The clear advantage of wireless telephony is the removal of the
shackle of wired networks. Medical workers do not need to leave a patient's
bedside to check paper records for medical history, or other data. A manager
of a storage and delivery facility for a large business enterprise can use wireless
scanners connected to the main inventory database in order to track current
stocks. University students may access course data on wireless terminals across
campus. Car rental agencies can facilitate check-ins for their customers using
wireless networks. Corporate business meetings, using wireless, may be set up
at a moment's notice, and just as easily dismantled. The limits are only those
of the reader's imagination.
Of course, with this freedom comes a price, and that price is privacy and
security. Whereas a wired LAN (see Footnote 9.2 on page 332), is protected
by physical security and potentially additional cryptographic security, WLANs
Wireless Local Area Networks , sometimes called Wireless LANs , use radio waves,
not bound by such walls of security. Hence, different cryptographic methods are
required since Eve can listen in on a WLAN with her radio receiver. Moreover,
and more seriously, it is equally likely that Mallory can use his transmitter to
write data to a WLAN. Given this ease of access by adversaries, we need serious
means to thwart (active) Mallory attacks, as well as (passive) Eve threats.
WLANs : We learned about IEEE's development efforts with LANs,
MANs, and WANs in Section 9.1 (see Footnote 9.2), via its committee 802. We
now discuss its efforts in more detail, especially as it pertains to WLANs. The
802 committee is segmented into the standards upon which it works via their ex-
tension numbers. For instance, 802.3 represents task group 3 of the committee.
It focuses on development of Ethernet-based wired networks (see page 332). In
fact, the term “Ethernet” is often used in place of 802.3. The 802.11 committee
develops standards for WLANs, and this is further subdivided into subfamilies,
where 802.11 is the original standard, which is publicly ratified. Basically, the
three protocols 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, are protocols that concentrate
upon encoding, whereas 802.11c-f, 802.11h-j, and 802.11n are considered to be
service improvements and additions, or corrections to earlier specifications. For