what is the security risk of Wireless (WAP) ?

A wireless access point will always be less secure that a hard-wired network.  That said, you can still make it quite secure.  First make sure the AP is physically secure so someone can't reset the config on you.  Then be sure to use WPA2 (also known as WPA with AES) for security.

As for Fiber, it is considered very secure because transmissions can't be intercepted because if the cable is split it won't transmit.  utp can be tapped into but if your cable is physically secure then there shouldn't be an issue.

Let me know if you want to elaborate on your scenario or if you have any other questions.

I need to do IT risk assessment  and explain why  the company shouldn't  have WAP next to  its isolated LAN where no internet connection. and all that to have more security.

Is the access point secured? Are they using WEP, WPA or WPA2?  If they're using anything less than WPA2 then they're wrong.

by the way, what do you mean by "next to" the isolated LAN? Is it attached to the LAN?

In your report you can say that everything transfered through the AP will be send over air. An eveasdropper can capture the data (which ofcourse should be encrypted).
From that point you depend on your encryption strenght.

As yous encryption is not broken (like WEP or first vulnerabilities of WPA) you should be safe.

Probably the strongest authentication method you can use for the wireless radio would be WPA2 Enterprise. This will use a RADIUS server to actually authenticate your wireless clients, and will then use AES (highest grade) encryption to secure the traffic. As the others have said it's not as secure as traditional LAN's but should theoretically get the job done. If you are not at a governmental site or a site that deals with critical confidential / proprietary information I do not see it as too big of a concern. Just ensure your encryption keys are strong and not subject to dictionary attacks (i.e. use strong keys with letters and numbers capital / lowercase combinations)

You can also limit the power of your access points, enable mac-filtering etc, to further refine the security and integrity of the network.


Hope this helps!

Best,
yegs

Thanks  to all of you