The research arm of IBM Corp. has a software tool under development to identify wireless LAN nodes that are vulnerable to a sneak attack by hackers, the company announced Thursday. Prototyped on a Linux-based wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), the device will be able to automatically monitor 802.11 wireless LAN networks and collect security-related information.
The project developed from internal concerns at IBM over the security of its own growing 802.11 network, said Dave Safford, manager of the Global Security Analysis Lab at IBM Research unit.
"We've been doing some 'ethical hacking' for a year now, demonstrating weaknesses in 802.11 networks," he said. "The real challenge is that 802.11 networks are exploding. Wireless managers don't even know where all the network access points are."
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