Rogue Access Point

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What Does Rogue Access Point Mean?

A rogue access point (rogue AP) is any wireless access point that has been installed on a network’s wired infrastructure without the consent of the network’s administrator or owner, thereby providing unauthorized wireless access to the network’s wired infrastructure. Most of the time, rogue APs are set up by employees who want wireless access when none is available.

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Techopedia Explains Rogue Access Point

Another, and perhaps more common, example of a rogue access point is what is sometimes referred to as an “evil twin.” This, at no time, involves unauthorized Ethernet connections as in the example above. Rather, this involves a wireless device just outside of an organization that receives beacons transmitted by legitimate access points within the organization. The evil twin then begins to transmit identical beacons with the intent of having end users within the organization connect with it. Once connected, the evil twin can then be used by nefarious individuals as an avenue into the organization’s network.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.