Wireless Security

["Patrick Doyle" <patrick.doyle () bbc co uk>]

Hope this question isn't off topic, 

I am currently looking at securing wireless networks using Cisco hardware and wanted to check what peoples thoughts are 
on security.

I have read about using LEAP and also IPSEC, my concerns about using LEAP would be that although the client and access 
point send hashes of the username and password, and also dynamically create WEP keys, the process is still vulnerable 
to brute force attacks.  Now i know you can lock down the Access Point (AP) to specific MAC addresses, however, in our 
environment i can see wireless being used for meeting rooms etc, so the users would be random which would mean the 
constant addition / removal of MACs to the AP which would probably not be possible or practical all of the time.   
Although policy could dictate that when a wireless card is given out, the MAC address in added to the AP, however if 
you have multiple APs in different areas of building, being administered by different IT depts then this could soon 
become be a problem.

To me IPSEC looks like be the better solution using SecurID tokens (one time passwords) to authenticate users, any 
thoughts would be appreciated.



 

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