
Wireless Security White Paper
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Compaq provides turnkey solutions: clients with enabling technologies, airtime provided by
carriers, area network coverage, and optimized features. Compaq WWANs using CDPD and
GSM technologies are available now. WWAN via CDPD, for example, provides packet-switched
connections to the Internet, Internet e-mail, enterprise intranet and corporate e-mail. Compaq
offers an optimized MS Exchange e-mail solution with InfoWave. Nationwide (U.S.) coverage is
available. Wireless WAN via GSM, as another example, provides circuit-switched connection to
the Internet, Internet e-mail or enterprise modem pool. As with CDPD, an optimized MS
Exchange solution is provided with InfoWave.
Figure 4 illustrates a WWAN.
Figure 4: Wireless Wide-area Network
Whether it is a WLAN, a WPAN, or a WWAN, a wireless network uses radio waves to transmit
information. Radio waves travel over an unshielded medium, which is air. Because all wireless
networks operate on the same frequency and with the same equipment, and because it is difficult
to control how far radio waves travel, hackers can access the data as it is transmitted through the
air when the data is not properly encrypted. Such eavesdropping and possible theft of information
violates privacy. Gaining access to corporate passwords, logging on to servers, and taking over a
website (impersonation, which violates authentication and possibly integrity), or even shutting the
network down (sabotage, which overwhelms all the elements of security) are vulnerabilities
exposed with data traveling over radio waves.