Data Security on Wireless Networks

In the same way that all you need to pick up a local radio station is a radio, all anyone needs to detect a wireless network within nearby range is a wireless-equipped computer. There's no way to selectively hide the presence of your network from strangers, but you can prevent unauthorized people from connecting to it, and you can protect the data traveling across the network from prying eyes. By turning on a wireless network's encryption feature, you can scramble the data and control access to the network.

Wireless network hardware supports several standard encryption schemes, but the most common are Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2). WEP is the oldest and least secure method and should be avoided. WPA and WPA2 are good choices, but provide better protection when you use longer and more complex passwords (all devices on a wireless network must use the same kind of encryption and be configured with the same password).

Unless you intend to provide public access to your wireless network — and put your business data or your own personal data at risk — you should consider encryption mandatory.