Research on wireless network security awareness of average users

Abstract

Network insecurity has become an increasing problem in the world of computer networks. Technical experts have tried to combat this by improving the technical awareness of the threats and technical solutions involved in Wireless Local Networks (WLAN) through technical reports and policy enforcement. The average users’ knowledge and awareness of network security, how they react to the warnings and implement security measures is also very important. Current studies on users’ awareness of security policies, whether it has been communicated well enough and how aware WLAN users are to the threats and issues involved are still not fully ascertained. To fill this gap it is important to find out the users basic knowledge of the security measures and policies. In this paper, statistical methods were developed and adopted in other to compare the knowledge of Information Technology (IT) related employees and that of non-technical employees on how aware they are of WLAN security threats and security measures. The techniques the paper has adopted revealed the knowledge gap between non-technical and technical users. This revelation is significant and therefore requiring more efficient methods for creating awareness on WLAN threats and countermeasures among average users