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Operational and Organizational Security: Incident Response • Chapter 11 625

heat.Vacuuming air intakes and installing an air filtration system in rooms with
critical equipment can improve the quality of air and avoid these problems.

Protecting Equipment From ESD
Damage & Defense… components a shock. An ESD wristband is a strap that wraps around your
When working on equipment, you should take precautions to prevent
ESD. ESD wristbands and mats can ground you so you do not give the

wrist with a metal disc on it. A wire is attached to this metal disc, while
the other end has an alligator clip that can be attached to an electrical
ground. An ESD mat is similar, but has two wires with alligator clips
attached to them. One wire is attached to an electrical ground, while the
other is attached to the computer you are working on. When you place
the computer on the mat, the computer becomes grounded and any
static charge is bled away.

Wireless Cells

Environmental conditions can also play a large part in data falling into the wrong
hands.Wireless technologies have become commonplace in networks. Devices
using infrared light or radio frequencies are used to transmit data to and receive
data from other computers and devices attached to the network.While the speeds
may vary, wireless technologies allow users to access network data without being
physically connected to a network.There are many applications and issues dealing
with this technology, especially when you consider how many devices use wireless
networking. Desktop computers, laptops, hand-held computers, personal data assis-
tants (PDAs), and even cell phones commonly make use of wireless networking to
connect to the Internet or exchange data with a network. Because so much data
may be traveling through the air of your office, this also makes for some interesting
issues related to security.
As discussed in Chapter 4, data transmitted on wireless technologies are inher-
ently insecure, and require additional measures to secure that data. If equipment
used to transmit and receive data from these devices are placed too close to exte-
rior walls, wireless transmissions can leak outside of an office area.This may enable
others outside of the office to connect to the network or intercept data, using a
packet sniffer and other equipment that can be purchased from any store selling
computer products.This is why encrypting all data on a wireless network is so
important.The encryption prevents unauthorized individuals who access the signal
from deciphering any of the data.Aside from moving antennas away from exterior
walls, shielding can also be used to prevent wireless transmissions from escaping a

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