CYBER VULNERABILITY MITIGATION IN WI-FI NETWORKS: INTEGRATION OF PENETRATION TESTING, SOCIAL ENGINEERING, AND SECURITY AWARENESS IN XYZ EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

Abstrak

This study aims to empirically and comprehensively assess security vulnerabilities in military Wi-Fi networks at the XYZ defense educational institution, encompassing technical aspects (penetration testing with Aircrack-ng, WPA2 encryption analysis) and human factors (social engineering, personnel security awareness). A convergent mixed-methods approach was used to integrate quantitative and qualitative data. Penetration testing conducted at four strategic locations revealed that 75 percent of the network could be breached in less than 130 minutes due to weak passwords with low entropy (less than 60 bits) and default configurations. Meanwhile, a survey of 50 personnel showed that 80 percent were unable to accurately identify phishing attacks before training, and 65 percent were vulnerable to pretexting scenarios. Vulnerability analysis using the CIA Triad framework revealed violations of Confidentiality (40 percent of traffic could be intercepted within 30m), Integrity (20 percent of the network was vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle), and Availability (DoS through deauthentication closed 80 percent of active sessions). These findings indicate that the human factor is the biggest vulnerability (95 percent of global cyber breaches originate from human error or manipulation). Therefore, mitigation recommendations are integrative and multi-layered, encompassing technical interventions (migration to WPA3 with SAE, implementation of RADIUS and Snort IDS), behavioral interventions (regular awareness training and monthly phishing simulations), and organizational interventions (establishment of a 24/7 CSOC). This integrated framework is estimated to reduce attack success by 70 percent, which is crucial for creating military cyber resilience in accordance with the spirit of Sishankamrata and Permenhan No. 82/2014 concerning Cyber Defense.