Refereed article in conference proceedings (A4)
The COVID-19 pandemic and remote working did not improve WLAN security
List of Authors: Lindroos Saku, Hakkala Antti, Virtanen Seppo
Editors: Elhadi Shakshuki
Conference name: International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Procedia Computer Science
Book title *: The 13th International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies (ANT) / The 5th International Conference on Emerging Data and Industry 4.0 (EDI40)
Title of series: Procedia Computer Science
Volume number: 201
Start page: 158
End page: 165
ISSN: 1877-0509
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2022.03.023
URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050922004355?via%3Dihub
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/174942143
In this article, we present an analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) security and abundance in Southwest Finland. We hypothesised that the drastic increase in telecommuting caused by the pandemic would encourage many to update obsolete WLAN devices, improving the state of WLAN security and increasing WLAN deployment in the survey region. To test our hypotheses, data from seven WLAN surveys carried out between February 2020 and October 2021 was analysed. Surprisingly, although the results show a 50.2% increase in WLAN deployment during the second and fourth waves of the pandemic, this had no significant effect on WLAN security in the survey region. The survey data shows little change in the number of unencrypted networks and networks configured with vulnerable encryption protocols. While most of the located networks were encrypted with the secure WPA2 protocol, the number of networks configured with the newest WPA3 has not notably increased.
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