Expert: Wireless security is all about location

Wireless security can benefit from an old real estate mantra –- location, location, location -- a wireless security expert said yesterday.

Authenticating wireless users by the location of the access points they use is a good benchmark for role-based access to networks, said Matthew Gray, founder of and chief technology officer at Newbury Networks.

Location-based authentication prevents social engineering and backdoor attacks and discourages attempts to enter networks by brute force, Gray said yesterday at the FCW Events Wireless and RFID Conference and Exhibition.

“If they’re on the fence line, don’t let them in,” Gray said.

A division of the U.S. Air Force that works with Newbury Networks has made location-based authentication mandatory at its facilities since finding that using it blocked nearly all incoming attacks, Gray said.