Page 250 - StudyBook.pdf

234 Chapter 4 • Communication Security: Wireless

NOTE

To add to the confusion, MIC is variously referred to as Message
Integrity Code or Message Integrity Check. As with TKIP, MIC is a tech-
nology originally developed by Cisco (which uses the term “Check”) for
use in its products, and is not widely available at the time of this
writing.

IEEE 802.11i Standard

The negative response to the weaknesses of WEP has been vociferous and strong.
To address the criticisms leveled at WEP and to provide a stronger standards-based
security mechanism that vendors can implement in their products, the IEEE
802.11i task group is working on the upcoming 802.11i standard.Although the
standard is not finalized, some things about its final form are fairly certain.The
standard will take the best of the technology available today for securing wireless
networks and combine them into a single, coherent standard.The following are
expected to be included in the standard:

■ The 802.11i standard will require the use of 802.1X authentication based
on EAP.

■ The 802.11i standard will also likely require the use of TKIP and MIC.
■ For new devices, the 802.11i standard will also require the use of
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as a replacement for the compro-
mised RC4 algorithm.

AES provides much stronger encryption than RC4. However, because of the
additional processing power required for AES encryption, the addition of a co-pro-
cessor will likely be necessary in wireless device hardware.When this technology
becomes available in the marketplace, replacing legacy wireless devices could result
in a significant expenditure.As with all other security measures, administrators and
managers will have to compare the costs of implementation against the threats the
implementation will mitigate.

www.syngress.com