-: We all use wireless devices these days.
Whether it's your laptop, your tablet, or your smartphone,
all of these have the ability to communicate wirelessly.
How can we best secure these devices?
Well, there's two main things we have to think about when
we talk about wireless with these devices:
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
First, Wi-Fi, is there Internet connectivity?
If we're using Wi-Fi, we want to make sure the Wi-Fi is set
to be protected at the highest levels.
Currently, that's WPA2, or Wi-Fi Protected
Access Version Two.
This relies on the advanced encryption standard
for its encryption algorithm, also known as AES.
In addition to securing our Wi-Fi, we also have to consider
the peripherals that connect to these devices.
For example, if you have a smartphone and it connects
to a Bluetooth to your car, how is that link being secured?
Well, by default, Bluetooth requires you to pair the device
and when you pair the device, the two devices will
communicate via that shared link in giving each other
a shared link key.
They use that key to encrypt their data.
Unfortunately, some of these devices use weaker encryption
than others, so if you're really worried about
your confidentiality, you should always try to avoid
wireless devices, when possible.
If you have to use a wireless device like headphones
or connecting to your car, you should look
at the manufacturer specifications to determine what type
of encryption is being used and if they're not using AES
with a strong key, you might want to pass on using that
device and buy a replacement.