New Tools Pilot The Way To Secure Wireless LANs

New tools launched last week by vendors Wavelink and AirMagnet aim to plug security gaps in wireless LAN deployments.

Wavelink Managed Security and AirMagnet Enterprise could help customers overcome fears about security threats such as rogue access points and unauthorized users, which in some cases have caused customers to block WLAN deployments, solution providers said.

The timing of the new products couldn't be better, solution providers added, as regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and HIPAA have brought customers' security concerns to a fever pitch.

In particular, the lack of comprehensive WLAN management and security tools has hindered sales of wireless solutions to large enterprise customers, said Greg Richards, vice president and general manager of solutions at Tolt Technologies, a solution provider based in Gig Harbor, Wash.

"Concerns about management, authentication and supplicant [client] policies have kept all but the extremely 'techie' and the early adopters from moving forward with wireless," Richards said.Worries about rogue access points and unauthorized users also plague customers, said Bruce Ligerman, president of LogiTel USA, a solution provider in New York. "It could be just someone who wants wireless access in a conference room for the day all the way to malicious hackers," Ligerman said.

Even those customers who have gone ahead with WLAN rollouts haven't always thought through security issues in advance, said Dave Bullis, president and CEO of Wavelink, a mobile infrastructure management vendor in Kirkland, Wash.

"Many who have had wireless infrastructure for some time are just now realizing how important [security] is," Bullis said. This creates vast service opportunities for solution providers to use tools such as Wavelink Managed Security to help customers set WLAN security policies and put them in place, he said.

Wavelink Managed Security is an integrated system for deploying, securing, monitoring and managing WLAN deployments, including network infrastructure and the mobile devices that connect to it.

Wavelink's suite is hardware-agnostic, offering centralized WLAN infrastructure and management of security issues such as intrusions, rogue access points, policy mismatches and denial-of-service attacks for multivendor WLAN deployments. It supports the 802.1x IEEE standard for port-based network-access control and a variety of authentication techniques, including Transport Layer Security, Tunneled Transport Layer Security and Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol.Wavelink Managed Security combines several of the company's products, including its flagship Mobile Manager WLAN management software, Avalanche mobile device management solution and Mobile Manager Authentication Server. It also integrates Wavelink's technology with products from two vendor partners--Cambridge, Mass.-based Funk Software and AirMagnet, Sunnyvale, Calif.

Integration with Funk's Odyssey Client user-authentication solution enables customers to create authentication profiles and push them out to mobile devices, while integration with AirMagnet's Enterprise intrusion-prevention system allows users to detect and shut down rogue devices, said Eric Hermelee, vice president of marketing at Wavelink.

Solution providers will have to source Wavelink, Funk and AirMagnet products separately, although bundled offerings will likely be available through distribution, Bullis said.

In a separate announcement last week, AirMagnet rolled out AirMagnet Enterprise 5.0, formerly known as AirMagnet Distributed, which adds new capabilities such as 3D Rogue Control and automated intrusion-response features.

The software works with AirMagnet's SmartEdge Sensors, which remotely scan the airwaves for security intrusions and performance problems, said Rich Mironov, vice president of marketing at AirMagnet.Through 3D Rogue Control, AirMagnet Enterprise can sense rogue access points and triangulate their location to within about 10 feet, matching their location to office blueprints so IT managers can quickly find and remove them, Mironov said.

New intrusion-response capabilities automatically shut down rogue devices through wireless and wired-side blocking, preventing intruders from accessing the wired network through an unauthorized access point, he said. AirMagnet's intrusion-prevention solution helps IT managers keep tabs on WLANs in remote locations where IT resources might be limited, Ligerman said.

Wavelink Managed Security is available now. Pricing for Mobile Manager starts at $9,700 for management of 25 infrastructure devices and 25 mobile devices.

An AirMagnet starter kit, which includes Enterprise and four SmartEdge sensors, is available now starting at $8,995. Additional sensors cost $750 each.