Visual techniques for analyzing wireless communication patterns

New security concerns have emerged with the widespread availability of easy-to-integrate, affordable wireless networking technology. To meet the growing challenges of analyzing IEEE 802.11 wireless traffic and assessing security risks, a system of wireless network visualization components was created to provide defenders with tools to analyze vast amounts of “wardriving” data, i.e., wireless radio signals collected while moving about an area in a car or on foot. This paper describes the data processing and visualization techniques that are utilized by the WiFi Flows visualization within MeerCAT® to depict communication patterns of wireless devices in order to provide analysts and network defenders with enhanced situational awareness of threats to their networks.