Questions
Details of the Project:
Research and select a current trend in the area of telecommunications. Prepare a 10-15 page paper in Microsoft Word (counts as 11% of the final grade) AMU approved APA format (see Writing@APUS in the Resources Center) (350 words per page). At a minimum include the following:
Detailed description of the area researched
Technology involved in the area
Future trends in the area
Example companies involved in the area
Regulatory issues surrounding the area
Global implications for the area
References (minimum of 10)
The paper must by at least 10 pages double-spaced, 1″ margin all around, black 12 point fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier) with correct citations of all utilized references/sources, (pictures, graphics, etc are extra – allowed but extra for the minimum page count). The title page and references are also required but don’t count in the minimum page count.
Solution
Technology has increasingly made life more accessible due to various achievements, such as the ease with which people can communicate. Through telecommunications, the world has become a global village where individuals can communicate across long distances as if they are in the same room. Wireless networks have created connections and enabled humanity to interlink to an extent that was never possible before. Development of wireless network or WiFi spells convenience in personal, education, and work-related life because of the ease with which people can link and share information (Pathan, 2016). Wireless Internet Connection has created the opportunity for any person with a laptop, smartphone, or tablet to communicate as long as they have Internet access. Through technology, users no longer require tons of cable bundles connected from one room to another or within an office to enable communication. Although Wireless Internet Connection appears to be a blessing in telecommunication, it has a trend that users and providers should understand and manage to use them safely, which is wireless security.
Detailed Description of the Area Researched
The focus of the discussion is wireless security, which has become critical in the current times because of the growth in the use of wireless networks around the world. Wireless security refers to the tools used to prevent unauthorized access or destruction to data or computers in the increasingly networked world. In the wake of great use of wireless networks, such as WiFi networks, threats to data, or information security are also in the increase (Pathan, 2016). Therefore, IT experts have indicated the need for a high level of security in the wireless network environment to ensure that individuals and organizations protect their data and computer systems. Wireless security is an element of computer or information security, but companies are in danger of breaches perpetrated by rogue access points in wireless network situations (Khan & Pathan, 2013). Consequently, the idea of wireless security has become important for users, both individuals and organizations.
Wireless security is critical because of the growing risk to data and computers systems perpetrated by people from inside and outside an organization. For example, a member of staff (trusted entity) can bring in a wireless router and plug it into an unsecured switchport (Sun et al., 2014). As a result, the network becomes exposed to access by any person within the range of the signal, and with it, comes a serious threat to data security because people can access information from the network. In the same way, an employee can add a wireless interface to a computer in a network utilizing an open USB port, creating a network security breach, which could permit access to private information in the network (Khan & Pathan, 2013). Generally, computer experts have indicated an increase in the prevalence of data breaches in a networked setting.
Wireless security is becoming increasingly important as individuals and companies devise and implement countermeasures to protect the information, computer systems, and entire networks. Wireless security was non-existence decades ago before the creation of the internet and the wireless connections to share information within and across organizations. For example, the original 802.11 committees did not imagine that wireless hosts would shortly outnumber bounded media hosts (Bellalta, 2016). Unfortunately such times have come to pass and will become more critical in the future. Therefore, IT professionals are navigating the new world of information security in the wireless settings, and the need will increase in the future as more sophisticated interconnections appear. IT experts in organizations should understand wireless security to implement effective measures to protect information and computer systems. Effective countermeasures (like disabling open switchports during switch configuration and VLAN configuration to limit network access) are available to protect both the network and the information it contains. Still, such countermeasures must be applied uniformly to all network devices.
Technology Involved in the Area
Wireless security involves the use of technology to protect wireless networks from data breaches that place information and computer systems at risk. The most common types of wireless security include WiFi Protected Access (WPA) and Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WiFi Protected Access is a fast alternative to improving wires security over Wired Equivalent Privacy. WPA2 is the current standard, but some hardware is incapable of supporting WPA2 without firmware replacement or upgrade. The rule applies an encryption device for encrypting a network with a 256-bit key (Badholia, Verma, Kalkal, & Kashyap, 2018). The key is longer, which enables WPA2 to improve security in a more effective way than WEP. In most cases, enterprises enforce wireless security with a certificate-based system for authentication a device connected to the network. The standard ensures that data security is enforced in a networked environment.
Although some users still apply Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), it is a weak security standard. The technology uses a password that is easy to crack in a few minutes using a laptop and one of the widely available software devices. Wired Equivalent Privacy is an old IEEE 802.11 standard, which was created in 1997. Its use has been superseded WPA, which was created in 2003, or WiFi Protected Access which provide more superior wireless security (Khan & Pathan, 2013). Users have a shared-key authentication to allow them access to networks protected using WEP, which allows the access point to send the client device a challenge-text packet that can only be encrypted using the right WEP key. Authentication fails if the person tries to access the data or device lacks the right key, which also denies the client the authority to associate with the access point (Badholia, Verma, Kalkal, & Kashyap, 2018). However, WEP is a relatively weak authentication technology, which necessitates more sophisticated technologies, such as WPA and Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS).
Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is one of the most recent wireless security measures that individuals and companies could use to secure their networks. RADIUS is a networking protocol with more security benefits compared to WEP (Lammle, 2012). The technology allows authorization, centralized access, and accounting supervision when using a wireless network to ensure data and computer security (McCann & Karmarkar, 2018). The system authenticates the user allowing security mechanisms to establish the type of right one has and how to use the right when interacting with the network. It maintains a record of the number of times a person tries to access the system unsuccessfully. Some laptops come with a pre-installed wireless card to enable people to enter networks while mobile with a high level of wireless security (Khan & Pathan, 2013). However, hackers are becoming more sophisticated in their ability to enter a system and violate the integrity of the information contained. The ease of access to information by hackers is the reason for increasing use of technological devices to maintain wireless security.
Future Trends in the Area
Wireless networks have been key in revolutionizing technological access in the past decade, which suggests the need to understand what the future holds for this area, including wireless security. The current trends reveal that challenges associated with information security through the network will persist in the future and create worse challenges for IT experts (Zou, Zhu, Wang, & Hanzo, 2016). Providers and users should understand the advances in information security challenges related to the use of wireless networks. In the future, IT professionals will need to create more advanced security tools as violators, such as hackers, will also create sophisticated tools to hack and access information in networked systems. The future creates a need to balance between the beneficial use of wireless networks and the growing need for wireless security. Thus, areas such as wireless communications standards, certification and regulatory requirements will also become increasingly important in the future as providers and users strive to make the environment more secure.
Balancing the requirements will necessitate faster development and introduction of new products into the market to implement wireless networks securely. Furthermore, they will have increased demand to ensure customer acceptance of the sophisticated technology by assuring them about the security of their data, considering that risks will also increase. IT service providers can achieve customer acceptance by increasing knowledge of advances in the current complex wireless landscape such as security standards and protocols (Zou, Zhu, Wang, & Hanzo, 2016). The knowledge will enable manufacturers to provide practical networking that reduces the risk of bleaches that affect data security. Besides, standards bodies and IT organizations will continue to spend time and financial resources on creating and implementing next-generation solutions to deal with increasing issues related to wireless security. Clearly, since wireless technology will continue to improve, the industry should keep up with the changes.
The IT industry has already taken into account some of the changes that might be necessary for the future of wireless security, such as advanced standards. For example, the 802.11i IEEE draft standard takes into consideration the next-generation authentication needs by improving authorization, and encryption capacity of current security measures. The WiFi Alliance focused on the WiFi Protected Access (WPA) standard, which is another future-oriented security mechanism. Although the standards are more complex and sophisticated than those that were established earlier, they are more scalable and provides a greater level of security (Zou, Zhu, Wang, & Hanzo, 2016). They are making it harder for hackers and other attackers to access wireless networks to steal or damage the integrity of data. Generally, the area of data security has become increasingly complex, and attackers are using complicated tools, which necessitated the need to continue advancing wireless security.
Example Companies Involved in the Area
The United States government has a vital role in the establishment of wireless security standards to ensure the secure use of information through networking. For example, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, in 1985, ruled in support of the release of the ISM band for unlicensed use. It created the basis for the development of other standards to ensure secure use of data in networks. The NCR Corporation/AT&T (currently known as Nokia Labs and LSI Corporation), in 1991 created the initial version of 802.11 (Bellalta, 2016). The WiFi Alliance is another organization involved in the creation of wireless networking solutions, including wireless security technology. In 1999, the organization was established to get the WiFi trademark that would allow the marketing of all WiFi products. Besides the companies and organizations involved in the creation of WiFi, others emerged that extended its use and created other breakthrough developments in the use of wireless technology, such as Apple Inc., in 1999, when it adopted WiFi for its iBook series of laptops in 1999 (Zou, Zhu, Wang, & Hanzo, 2016). The companies have engaged in the development of the use of wireless networks and growth in the need for wireless network security to ensure safe movement and use of data on the network.
Many other companies continue to enter into the wireless networking sector and focus on ensuring adequate security of information used by individuals and companies. The WiFi Alliance is a non-profit organization involved in promoting the use of WiFi technologies and certifies WiFi products to conform to particular interoperability standards. The certification process is necessary, although some companies avoid it because of the cost implications (Zou, Zhu, Wang, & Hanzo, 2016). Regardless, companies are encouraged to comply with the standards to ensure that they use information and computers in a more secure networked environment. IEEE 802.11-compliant devices have proven more secure compared to non-compliant ones (Bellalta, 2016). Apart from companies that have focused on the development of the standards, others use the security systems to protect data. For example, financial institutions such as banks benefit from secure networks to protect their client data. Generally, wireless security is a significant trend for companies in the private and public sector because of the increasing dependence on wireless networks to share information and communicate.
Regulatory Issues Surrounding the Area
Regardless of the standards implemented to regulate the use of wireless networks, the regulatory environment remains problematic because technology always outpaces the law. As a result, grey areas always emerge in the use of different types of technology, and wireless networks are not an exception. The use of WiFi technology creates unique regulatory issues that challenge legal, negligence, liability, and culpability principles. Furthermore, WiFi utilizes radio waves that, in some cases, transcend local, state, or national borders, raising challenges about jurisdiction. In some sectors, the government has created regulatory measures, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) to regulate the collection and use of information through the networked technology (Varshney, 2014). However, the very nature of WiFi introduces new complexity to the already multifaceted environment.
The current regulatory environment is inadequate to deal with security and privacy issues emerging from the use of WiFi. First, the government has been using laws that were created for a different technology landscape and not directly related to the use of WiFi. Secondly, the government has failed to adequately collaborate with technology experts to change the situation and create a more effective regulatory environment. The grey areas in the regulatory environment introduce changes in social behavior and potentially cause unintended ramifications for individuals and companies (Varshney, 2014). For example, the government has failed to protect users from bleaches and also failed to make companies accountable for the use of wireless networks in ways that protect from such violations.
Thus, the government should implement legal changes to protect against security and privacy issues in the use of wireless networks for information sharing and communication. The local, state and national government should work with IT experts to create an effective regulatory environment. Secondly, the government should create new laws or apply current legislation to network security issues. The solutions will eliminate the grey areas and improve compliance with laws and standards for the safe use of wireless networks, as well as accountability of operators of all types of wireless networks (Chen et al., 2017). They should also redefine jurisdiction in the use of the technology to ensure proper prosecution of crimes when they occur on the wireless network. Changes are necessary because the current legal environment remains ineffective in dealing with wireless security challenges.
Global Implications for the Area
Wireless security is not confined within the national borders since the impact runs across countries. Wireless networks connect people and organizations so that they can share information and communicate with others in other countries. Therefore, data security challenges that affect users in one country influence others in another. For example, a person could breach the security of a network in one country and steal information that relates to a company or individual in another due to the increasing interconnectedness across national borders (Gupta, Agrawal, & Yamaguchi, 2016). Wireless networks are helpful for global governance and business operations due to globalization. Companies can easily communicate with others about business dealings and governments about global issues, such as climate change. However, they face a challenge of wireless security issues because the information can be accessed at any point in the network through hacking or cracking. Unfortunately, global wireless security has grey areas that need to be addressed.
IT experts have contemplated the need to create a global wireless security system to address issues that have an impact on an international scale. For example, it would be possible to prosecute the perpetrators of data bleaches anywhere in the world. The current regulation situation makes it impossible to conduct such prosecutions because of the lack of a global internet security system (Varshney, 2014). It has left a legal gap such that criminals on countries with weak legal guidelines commit crimes in others causing a massive violation of data integrity, such as hacking the intelligence systems of a country from a remote location (Gope & Hwang, 2015). Many criminals get away with crimes because of the lack of a global legal system regulating wireless networks. Thus, governments around the world could work with IT experts to create a global legal system to regulate the use of wireless network and prevent bleaches that lead to loss of data and negative ramifications to individuals and organizations.
Conclusion
Wireless security is one of the trends in telecommunications due to the increased use of wireless networks. Individuals and organizations are increasingly dependent on wireless networks to share information and communicate. As a result, they place themselves at the risk of data breaches that place data and computers at the risk of loss and damage. The government and other organizations have developed standards to ensure wireless security, such as WPA, WEP, and RADIUS. However, given that the area of wireless security continues to improve, the standards should also change to align with the trends in wireless network communications. In addition, the government should collaborate with national and global stakeholders, including IT experts, to develop an active regulatory environment to facilitate wireless communication.
References
Badholia, A., Verma, V., Kalkal, S., & Kashyap, S. K. (2018). New Wireless Network Protocol: WEP, WAP, WAP2. International Journal of Satellite Communication & Remote Sensing, 4(2), 14-19. doi: 10.1109/ICCSIT.2009.5234856.
Bellalta, B. (2016). IEEE 802.11 ax: High-efficiency WLANs. IEEE Wireless Communications, 23(1), 38-46.
Chen, L., Thombre, S., Järvinen, K., Lohan, E. S., Alén-Savikko, A., Leppäkoski, H., … & Lindqvist, J. (2017). Robustness, security and privacy in location-based services for future IoT: A survey. IEEE Access, 5, 8956-8977. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2695525
Gope, P., & Hwang, T. (2015). Enhanced secure mutual authentication and key agreement scheme preserving user anonymity in global mobile networks. Wireless Personal Communications, 82(4), 2231-2245. doi: 10.1007/s11277-015-2344-z.
Gupta, B., Agrawal, D. P., & Yamaguchi, S. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of research on modern cryptographic solutions for computer and cyber security. Washington, DC: IGI global.
Khan, S., & Pathan, A. K. (2013). Wireless networks and security. Springer, 10, 978-3. doi:10.1155/2009/532434
Lammle, T. (2012). CompTIA Network+ Study Guide Authorized Courseware: Exam N10-005. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
McCann, T. M., & Karmarkar, K. K. (2018). U.S. Patent No. 9,923,984. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Pathan, A. S. K. (Ed.). (2016). Security of self-organizing networks: MANET, WSN, WMN, VANET. New York: CRC press.
Sun, W., Lee, O., Shin, Y., Kim, S., Yang, C., Kim, H., & Choi, S. (2014). Wi-Fi could be much more. IEEE Communications Magazine, 52(11), 22-29. doi: 10.1109/MCOM.2014.6957139
Varshney, U. (2014). The regulatory issues affecting mobile financial systems: Promises, challenges, and a research agenda. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 34(1), 75. doi. 10.17705/1CAIS.03475
Zou, Y., Zhu, J., Wang, X., & Hanzo, L. (2016). A survey on wireless security: Technical challenges, recent advances, and future trends. Proceedings of the IEEE, 104(9), 1727-1765. doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2016.2558521.
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