Government Technology - May 2008 - (Page 36) security S TAT E | L O C A L | F E D E R A L j j Synopsis: Wireless security vendor rates the vulnerability of networks in San Francisco. Government scores lowest, with a D. San Francisco officials disagree. Jurisdiction: Grade? Government scores lower than finance, retail, transportation and corporations in vendor’s wireless security survey. Failing City and county of San Francisco. MAY_08 overnment wireless networks in San Francisco need a security upgrade, according to AirDefense, an Atlanta-based network security company. The firm released its San Francisco Wireless Security Vulnerability Survey in April, revealing a grim snapshot of the City by the Bay’s wireless climate. The survey analyzed wireless security in five categories — finance, government, retail, transportation and major corporations — and found 4,606 total access points (APs) in use for connecting wirelessly to these networks. Government finished dead last with a D grade, according to the company. Transportation scored highest, earning a B-. Retail earned a C+, major corporations earned a C and finance earned a C-. San Francisco government officials defended the security of their municipal networks, however, and questioned the accuracy of the company’s grades. “There’s no indication of how an access point was identified as government as opposed to any of the other industry groups, or whether it was even associated with an industry rather than just a consumer’s access point,” said Brian Roberts, senior policy analyst for the Department of Telecommunications and Information Services in San Francisco consolidated government. AirDefense graded each industry on five criteria: 1. The number of APs without encryption or using the relatively weak Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption standard. 2. The presence of probing laptops, which look for unencrypted wireless networks to assess how vulnerable they are to infiltration. 3. The discovery of “rogue” APs, which often are set up by workers without authorization from their employers. They G 51 B Y H I LT O N C O L L I N S | S T A F F W R I T E R C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 36 http://www.govtech.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.