NIST puts together a plan for securing wireless LANs

Wireless local-area networks are widely used in government to extend traditional LANs, but they can introduce new networking risks, the National Institute of Standards and Technology warns.

“Unfortunately, WLANs are typically less secure than their wired counterparts for several reasons, including the ease of access to the WLAN and the weak security configurations often used for WLANs (to favor convenience over security),” NIST says in newly released guidelines for securing wireless networks. Draft Special Publication 800-153, “Guidelines for Securing Wireless Local Area Networks” provides recommendations for improving the security configuration and monitoring of wireless networks and the devices connecting to them.