Wireless monitoring sensor (WIDS): what it is and how it is attacked
Equipment that listens to the airwaves and reports transmitters that should not be there.
Also known as
- WIDS
- WIPS
- wireless intrusion detection
- air monitor
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It is the only object on a wireless diagram that would notice an added or a copied transmitter. A diagram showing a wireless attack with no sensor on it is also showing why nobody saw it.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Deployed to satisfy an audit and then left with nobody reading the alerts
- Coverage that follows where access points were convenient rather than where the boundary is
- Everything unfamiliar suppressed to quieten the noise from neighbouring tenants
What reduces it
- Write the response before the first alert arrives, because an unread alert is an absent control
- Map monitoring against the boundary, not against the office
- Tune the noise; do not suppress the category
Where it sits
- Group
- Wireless and radio · The parts of the network that travel through the air, and how far they reach.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- wireless-monitor
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in wireless and radio
- Wi-Fi access pointAP · wireless · WAPLets devices join the network without a cable.
- Wireless network nameSSID · network name · WLAN · guest wifiThe name devices show in their list of available wireless networks.
- Wireless controllerWLC · wireless LAN controller · AP controller · cloud-managed wirelessThe single system that configures and watches every wireless access point.
- Mobile broadband router4G router · 5G router · cellular modem · MiFi · dongle · tetheringA box, or a phone, that gives a network its own connection through the mobile phone network.
- Satellite terminalVSAT · satcom · satellite internet · BGANA dish or flat panel that connects a site to the internet through a satellite.
- Satellite time and location receiverGPS · GNSS · GPS clock · grandmaster clock · timing sourceA device that works out where it is, and what the time is, from satellites.
- Bluetooth deviceBT · Bluetooth Low Energy · BLE · pairing · wireless keyboardSomething that connects to a phone or a computer over a short-range radio link: a headset, a keyboard, a car.
- Low-power radio deviceLoRa · LoRaWAN · Zigbee · Z-Wave · sub-GHz · wireless sensorA small battery-powered sensor or switch that sends short messages over a long range: a meter, a door contact, a thermostat.
- Radio gatewayIoT gateway · LoRaWAN gateway · Zigbee hub · protocol bridge · smart hubThe box that turns messages from small wireless sensors into ordinary network traffic.
- Contactless readerNFC reader · tap reader · payment terminal · card terminalA pad that reads a card, a phone or a wristband held against it, usually to take a payment.
The wireless and radio group lists all 11 of them side by side.
Wireless monitoring sensor on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type WIDS. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker