Secure Hotspot a novel approach to secure public Wi-Fi hotspot

Wi-Fi technology has gained its wide popularity in computer networking in the last decade. Today, Wi-Fi is being used as the major networking medium in LAN (WLAN), adhoc networks, house hold networks, VAN etc. Another promising area where Wi-Fi is being used is the public internet Access Points called hotspots. These days internet is made available for free via a Wi-Fi Access Point (Hotspot) in many public places like restaurants, shopping malls etc. Security of confidential information exchanged through these public hotspots should be ensured. None of the existing security measures adopted in a public hotspot ensures secure communication. Behind every such network, waiting like a mugger in a dark corner may be a hacker, intercepting your confidential information such as credit card numbers, name, address and more, before it ever reaches the intended destination.A security protocol that ensures secure internet access through public Wi-Fi hotspot is important in this scenario. The existing solutions to this problem are mostly user centric and they are considered as precautions taken from the user side. This paper considers vulnerabilities like open nature of communication channel, lack of confidentiality, weak encryption methods etc. in a public Wi-Fi hotspot and proposes a security protocol that ensures individual confidentiality during the communication. The solution tries to eliminate the dependency on any pre-shared information between the AP (Access Point) and the client device to implement security. Existing WPA2-PSK protocol is modified to generate an Instantaneous Session Key (ISK) between the client and the Access Point through secured Diffie Hellman key exchange thereby eliminating the dependency on a pre-shared key. The study covers existing security issues in a public hotspot, limitations in the existing security protocols and other precautionary measures, the proposed solution and security analysis of the proposed solution.