AIRTIGHT NETWORKS

WHITEPAPER

Walk Around Wireless Security Audits – The End Is Near!

A Whitepaper by AirTight Networks, Inc.

339 N. Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043

www.airtightnetworks.com

© 2008
2009 AirTight Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
AIRTIGHT NETWORKS WHITEPAPER

Walk Around Wireless Security Audits – The End Is Near!

Executive Summary

Without a viable alternative, wireless security auditors had to conduct

audits by traipsing around a facility with a handheld scanning device —
a time consuming and labor intensive activity. That practice is plagued
by many drawbacks that greatly limit the effectiveness and efficiency
of wireless security audits. Even with expensive commercial products,
handheld wireless audits are cumbersome and error-prone. The use of
free scanning tools only exacerbates the problem. And the man-hours
and travel expenses incurred per audit negatively impact productivity.

This paper describes a new hosted service architecture offered by

AirTight Networks that enables effortless, automated wireless security
audits from anywhere on the Internet, anytime. No more “walk arounds.”
Plug-and-play wireless scanners onsite scan round-the-clock without
human intervention, and securely communicate with a central server
hosted on the Internet in a secure data center. The central server
analyzes the data with an up-to-date wireless vulnerability database
and assesses the wireless security posture or compliance of a network.
Rich vulnerability assessment and compliance reports can be generated
on demand with just a mouse click. Now finally, auditors can do a large
number of wireless security audits accurately and cost-effectively in very
little time.

AirTight Networks’ SpectraGuard® Online is the world’s first and only

wireless vulnerability management offered as a hosted service. For
wireless security auditors, SpectraGuard Online can bring:
more revenue per customer;
the ability to serve many more customers simultaneously; and
low touch engagements.

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Introduction
Wireless security audits play a crucial role in the wireless vulnerability
assessment of IT infrastructure and provide guidance on how organizations
can meet regulatory wireless compliance requirements. Assessment of wireless
vulnerabilities is challenging because of the dynamic nature of wireless
environments. Auditors have to worry about not only the wireless devices in a
network environment that is being audited, but also external wireless devices
in the vicinity that can impact the susceptibility of the network in question to
vulnerabilities and attacks. Wireless laptops, handhelds, and smartphones carried
by business travelers can also get infected with vulnerabilities on the road; even
organizations that may not have officially deployed a wireless LAN need to be
aware of these threats.

Unfortunately, wireless security auditors have been underserved by the available

auditing tools and methods. Traditionally wireless security audits have been
conducted as an onsite activity. The auditor must walk around with a handheld
device sniffing over-the-air wireless data. This cumbersome technique with limited
wireless vulnerability assessment capabilities makes wireless security audits
ineffective and inefficient, and makes auditors less productive.

AirTight Networks’ unique service that allows for wireless security audits as a
hosted service removes the burden from the auditors and empowers them to
deliver premium service to their customers and perform more audits efficiently.

Web-based Wireless Security Audits as a Service

Web-based wireless security auditing — a radical departure from the conventional
onsite approach — leverages the Software as a Service (SaaS) model to offer
wireless security audits online, on-demand. Auditors use plug-and-play wireless
scanners to monitor the airspace. The scanners automatically connect to a
centralized server over a secure connection. The server is powered with an up-to-
date vulnerability database and is housed in a secure (SAS 70) datacenter. Auditors
access the wireless security auditing portal through a Web browser; no special
software is needed.

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SpectraGuard Online Architecture

SpectraGuard® Online
AirTight Networks’ SpectraGuard Online is the world’s first and only service that
offers wireless security audits as a monthly subscription-based service. Its benefits
for the audit community are powerful:
1. Effortless, effective wireless security audits anywhere, anytime.
SpectraGuard Online eliminates “walk arounds” with a handheld device. With the
auditing service easily accessible via any Web browser, auditors can conduct a
wireless security audit for any customer, anywhere in the world, at any time — they
do not even have to leave the comfort of their own offices. Direct or VPN access
to customer’s corporate network is not needed. Auditors do not have to own and
maintain any hardware or software tools.

With AirTight Networks’ pre-configured, plug-and-play wireless scanners

continuously scanning the airspace, auditors can generate on-demand wireless
vulnerability assessment and compliance reports, and recycle the wireless
scanners among multiple sites of a customer or among multiple customers. If
needed, multiple audits can be handled simultaneously via a single wireless
security portal.

The bottom line: auditors can increase their profitability by increasing efficiency —
doing more audits in less time and serving customers worldwide without traveling.

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2. Four service offerings

SpectraGuard Online offers four service modules to meet the varying needs of
enterprises of different sizes and level of wireless deployment.

Modules
Services Basic Wireless Wireless Wireless
Compliance Alerts IDS IPS
Automated wireless scanning
   
Compliance report delivered by email
monthly or quarterly    
Real-time email alerts for Rogue AP
detection and wireless intrusion -   
Archiving of alerts for one year
-   
Access to wireless IDS console
- -  
24x7 full wireless monitoring
- -  
Troubleshooting and customizable
unlimited reporting - -  
24x7 full wireless intrusion prevention
and automatic incident response - - - 
RF heat maps
- - - 
Location tracking to physically locate
and remove Rogue APs - - - 
3. Confidence of a complete wireless vulnerability assessment
The inadequacy of handheld scanning for vulnerability assessment leaves audited
networks exposed to many common wireless threats and unaware of new
vulnerabilities. Free scanning tools such as NetStumbler and Kismet primarily
serve the purpose of capturing over-the-air packets, and report only very basic
information such as SSID, encryption, and MAC addresses. Further, handheld
scanners are not able to distinguish which wireless devices are connected to the
wired corporate LAN. This combined with the lack of security policies renders these
tools close to useless for alerting against common threats such as rogue APs, client
misassociation, and honeypots, to name a few. In addition, most live wireless
attacks go undetected during handheld scans. Auditors giving a clean bill of health
to such networks run the risk of liability if a wireless security breach or leakage of
classified information occurs.

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With an up-to-date centralized vulnerability database and AirTight’s patented

wireless vulnerability management technology, SpectraGuard Online can
automatically detect all known wireless vulnerabilities and attacks. These include
client-side vulnerabilities (e.g., clients infected by viral SSIDs or probing for
vulnerable SSIDs) that occur when business travelers use their laptops and phones
for wireless access on the road.
4. Automated management of wireless security policies
Security policies form the basis of any security audit. With little or no support
for defining and managing wireless security policies built into most handheld
scanning tools, auditors face a daunting task of manually classifying wireless
devices, analyzing captured data, and assessing vulnerabilities.

With SpectraGuard Online users can easily define and manage wireless security
policies. AirTight Networks’ patented autoclassification technology allows quick,
accurate classification of access points and clients as authorized and unauthorized
including information about their connectivity, e.g., to wired corporate LAN, ad-
hoc networks.
5. Professional, pre-defined wireless security audit reports
Auditors often complain that communicating to each network administrator
which vulnerabilities are critical and need to be fixed is challenging. SpectraGuard
Online eliminates this problem by offering pre-defined reports that classify
detected wireless vulnerabilities into severity levels. This helps prioritize which
vulnerabilities need to be fixed first. Advice for fixing the vulnerability (manually or
automatically) is given. Reports can be generated for a moment in time or a period;
reports over different time periods can be used to audit the trends in the wireless
security posture of a network.

Depending on the goal, an auditor can generate a wireless vulnerability

assessment report or a regulatory compliance report (e.g., PCI, GLBA, SOX). In a
compliance report, each vulnerability is mapped to a specific requirement from
the respective compliance legislation.
6. Accurate, instant location tracking
Most handheld scanning tools force auditors to locate wireless devices based on a
trial-and-error method. The auditor has to walk around the facility and monitor the
change in signal strength; the idea is to walk in a direction where signal strength
increases eventually leading the auditor to the device of interest. This method can
take several minutes to several hours before the device can be located, if at all.
Some tools support GPS which is useless for indoor location tracking.

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With multiple scanners monitoring the airspace, SpectraGuard Online can instantly
and accurately locate wireless devices in the vicinity. This is critical for quickly
finding vulnerable or malicious devices.
7. Future-proof system
Scanning tools—free and commercial—do not guarantee an up-to-date
security audit against new or emerging vulnerabilities and exploits, and newer
technologies (e.g., 802.11n). Auditors have to wait for the next software patch or
version upgrade.

The SpectraGuard Online centralized wireless vulnerability database is continually

updated, allowing auditors to offer the world’s first and only zero-day wireless
threat auditing capability to their customers.
8. Integrate audit reports from multiple distributed sites
Customers with multiple WLAN deployments—some at worldwide locations—
often demand integrated wireless security audit reports for their company. With
handheld scanning, this has to be handled by auditors manually as a separate task.

With AirTight Networks’ patented location-based policy management technology,

SpectraGuard Online can naturally integrate wireless security audits at multiple
sites worldwide and organize the results into a single audit report, without any
effort for the auditor.
9. Customizable wireless security audits to suit your customer’s needs
Naturally depending on the type of business, organizations are exposed to
different types of wireless vulnerabilities and have different requirements both
internal and regulatory for managing wireless security. Unlike the one-size-fits-all
handheld scanning, SpectraGuard Online allows auditors to customize wireless
security audits to meet the specific needs of their customers.

Walk-around Scanning vs. SpectraGuard Online: Cost

Comparison
While enabling effortless PCI wireless scanning and compliance, the total cost of
ownership for SpectraGuard Online is radically less expensive than walk-around
scanning using any wireless analyzer especially for large enterprises with hundreds
or even thousands of sites across the globe. The pricing starts as low as $20 per
month per location.

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AIRTIGHT NETWORKS WHITEPAPER

Walk Around Wireless Security Audits – The End Is Near!

A B O U T
5
Cost of PCI Compliance
AIRTIGHT NETWORKS (Million $)
Wireless analyzer
AirTight Networks is the global 4
leader in wireless security and
compliance solutions providing 3
customers best-of-breed
technology to automatically 2
detect, classify, locate and
block all current and emerging
1
wireless threats. AirTight offers SpectraGuard Online
both the industry’s leading 0.5
wireless intrusion prevention
system (WIPS) and the world’s
500 1000 2000 3000 5000
first wireless vulnerability
Number of sites
management (WVM) security-
as-a-service (SaaS). AirTight’s Estimated one year expense for PCI wireless scanning. For SpectraGuard Online and on-site WIPS, one wireless sensor per loca-
award-winning solutions are tion is assumed. Cost for scanning with a wireless analyzer includes logistics cost such as travel and lodging.

used by customers globally in

the financial, government, retail,
manufacturing, transportation,
education, healthcare, telecom, Summary
and technology industries.
AirTight owns the seminal patents SpectraGuard Online is a breakthrough solution that offers wireless security
for wireless intrusion prevention audits as a hosted service. It facilitates cost-effective, unattended, non-intrusive,
technology with 11 U.S. patents and accurate assessment of wireless vulnerabilities. Wireless security auditors
and two international patents
are relieved of the drudgery and become more efficient and productive, while
granted (UK and Australia), and
more than 20 additional patents delivering premium service to their customers. With geographical and time
pending. AirTight Networks is a boundaries on wireless security audits removed, auditors can expand their
privately held company based services to worldwide locations and simultaneously serve more customers without
in Mountain View, CA. For more
breaking a sweat.
information please visit
www.airtightnetworks.com

The Global Leader in Wireless Security Solutions

AirTight Networks, Inc. 339 N. Bernardo Avenue #200, Mountain View, CA 94043
T +1.877.424.7844 T 650.961.1111 F 650.961.1169 www.airtightnetworks.com info@airtightnetworks.com
© 2009 AirTight Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. AirTight Networks and the AirTight Networks logo are trademarks, and
AirTight and SpectraGuard are registered trademarks of AirTight Networks, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are
properties of their respective owners. Specifications are subject to change without notice.