You are the network administrator for ABC Company.

Any tenants in the same building using advanced penetration testing tools will be able to obtain the SSID by exploiting WPA EAPOL-Key exchanges. This poses an additional risk of exposing the WPA key.

Any 802.11 protocol analyzer can see the SSID in clear text in frames other than Beacons frames. This negates any security benefit of trying to hide the SSID in Beacons and Probe Response frames.

To improve security by hiding the SSID, the AP and client stations must both be configured to remove the SSID from association request and response frames. Most VLAN products support this.

This security practice prevents manufacturers’ client utilities from detecting the SSID. As a result, the SSID cannot be obtained by attackers, except through social engineering, guessing, or use of a WIPS.