WiFi is commonly used both within organizations and in the general public. In recent years attackers have discovered ways to lure victims by using rogue access points. These are essentially wireless access points that have been installed in a network without authorization. In some cases these may have been installed by employees of an organization for convenience reasons, however this in itself is a security risk. More often than not, an employee who has installed such a device would most likely not have secured it correctly potentially leaving the network open to attack. On the other hand attackers deliberately install a rogue access points in order to deliberately target the network. This can be done through a series of vulnerability testing or scanning once they have access.
Shivaraj, Song & Shetty (2008) acknowledge that rogue access points are one of the most challenging security concerns for network administrators. They propose a statistical based approach to finding rogue access points within a network as part of a defense strategy. Sniffing out rogue access points can be as simple as reviewing local WiFi SSIDs in the vicinity to more complex methods using software (or sniffers) to intermittently sniff the air for rogues. Network Computing (n.d.).
References:
Juniper Networks (2015). Understanding Rogue Access Points. Retrieved from: http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/en_US/junos-space-apps/network-director2.0/topics/concept/wireless-rogue-ap.html
Shivaraj G, Song M, Shetty S: A hidden Markov model based approach to detect rogue access points. San Diego, USA: Paper presented at the IEEE military communications conference; 2008. Retrieved from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sachin_Shetty2/publication/224372485_A_Hidden_Markov_Model_based_approach_to_detect_Rogue_Access_Points/links/0912f50ecb7758014a000000.pdf
Network Computing (n.d.). Protect Yourself Against Rogue Wireless Access Points. Retrieved from: http://www.networkcomputing.com/networking/protect-yourself-against-rogue-wireless-access-points/768376782
