Sniff Out Bad Guys

A significant security mindshift during the past several years has been the change from a defensive WLAN posture to one that is more offensive. CIOs shouldn’t sit back and wait to be attacked; new technologies can detect, locate and shut down attacks before they do damage. "It’s critical that enterprise environments have the tools that allow them to police their own networks," Tsai says.

And for those CIOs who still say no to WLANs, they’d better make certain that’s really the case by monitoring their airwaves. "It’s strange: Let’s deploy Wi-Fi sensors in an environment where you have not deployed Wi-Fi," says The 451 Group’s Selby. "But having a way to search for rogue networks is a must."

Sunnybrook and Women’s Tsai has spread out 300 APs over three distinct campus environments in the Toronto area—two urban and one suburban campus. He uses an AP detection-scanning technology that’s built into Symbol’s WLAN products, and his experience verifies the notion that dense, urban areas are much more dangerous than suburban locales. "There’s a significant number of rogue detections in the hospitals downtown surrounded by offices and apartments," Tsai says. At the suburban campus, "we pick up very few."

While intrusion-detection systems, or IDSs, aren’t all that new, it’s the new prevention part of the IDS equation that is helping to cut off threats before they can manifest. At Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Tomcsanyi has a detection system in place and is rolling out a new prevention element by the third quarter of this year. "This takes more of a proactive approach," he says. Using new technology from vendors such as Aruba, the access points act as both radio frequency connectors and wireless sensors for intrusion prevention, which can save on costs from having to install both the APs and a separate IDS. (Tomcsanyi, however, says he plans to continue using multiple security systems—such as a new intrusion-prevention system from Cisco to be installed later this year—in concert with each other.)

"Anyone who doesn’t monitor their WLAN is looking for future problems," says Fessler, who uses a detection and prevention product from AirSpace (which was recently acquired by Cisco) inside his Cisco infrastructure. "At a centralized level, we can see the rogues and shut them off."

Segregate Traffic

Though it may seem like an insane idea to some security-minded CIOs, many IT execs are opening their wireless networks to the public: guests and business partners who want to surf the Web and check e-mail while in the buildings. Tomcsanyi says that his ability to give patients and other visitors wireless access is a valuable asset in the health-care field.