All home Wi-Fi gear comes with the bricks and mortar to put up at least a basic security wall against intruders and eavesdroppers, but McAfee wants to sell consumers a better trowel for building it. The company's McAfee Wireless Home Network Security software automatically sets up encryption keys on Wi-Fi routers and the PCs connected to them and then rotates the keys every three hours, according to Stu Elefant, senior product manager for wireless and new initiatives at McAfee. It will work with older Wi-Fi systems that use the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption system, as well as current equipment that also supports the newer WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA 2 technologies, he says. The software will go on sale online next week and in stores next month. McAfee's software is designed to keep intruders--either malicious "war drivers" or neighbors who just want to freeload on a broadband Internet connection--from getting on to wireless LANs and from deciphering the packets that travel over the network. Once on a wireless LAN, intruders can steal information, intercept messages, and install harmful programs. As consumers rapidly embrace Wi-Fi for their home networks, many are not using any security, usually because they can't figure out how to set it up, according to industry analysts and other observers. The Santa Clara, California, company isn't alone in trying to attack the problem. Broadcom, which makes the chips used in many popular wireless LAN products, has developed a simplified security setup technology that was introduced in some Cisco products last month and may be coming to other vendors' offerings soon. And the Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that certifies Wi-Fi gear, in the first half of next year plans to create a standard for easy security setup that vendors can build in and have certified as a check-off item on their products. Read the rest of the article at PC World.
Is this really such a security boost? as far as i can see it wont actually gives you any extra protection is you have allready set up encryption keys Rotating keys is possibly worse! to keep the wireless clients connected the new keys obvioulsy have to be sent to them accross the network (or the artical would have said you need to enter the new key every 3 hours) what im getting is, if someone starts bruke forcing your wep key they will have 3 HOURS to crack it.... and they will be connected at 54 mbps (if using 802.11g [6.75 MB/s]) so there chances are quite high. even if they fail, they could leave it looping (trying to crack the key) You allso knwo that they key lenth is going to be 8 or 16 digits (WEP) so the number of possible combinations are limited (compared to a variable key length) and once they have the key... there conected, so they will be sent the new one when it changes! Your best chance is to use a combination of security methods (WEP, Mac addresses and a VPN is a nice start) How would you protect your network? (looking for suggestions)
Funny you mention WEP, that technology is depreciated. It's being completely replaced by WPA, which has much, much tighter security with about the same overhead. And if the wireless 'I' standard ever catches on, it provides its own form of security overlay.
