Wireless is now here. All around us the technology is pervasive and signs are that Wi-Fi hotspots are dramatically increasing. Take for example, the news that the City of London Corporation has agreed to install a dense and comprehensive Wi-Fi internet network throughout London’s Square Mile.

The simple truth of the matter is that wireless can be a blessing to an organization through enabling mobility, reducing cabling costs, etc, but it can also be a nuisance and – in the worst case – a major security liability.

The trick is to deploy a wireless solution that gives the advantages mentioned above, but is totally secure. The question is can it be done?

Turn it off before you turn it on

The first challenge is to ensure that you deploy wireless on your terms and your terms alone. Many companies try to implement a ‘no wireless’ policy; fearful of the consequences of getting wireless wrong. But even here a major headache is the ‘Rogue Access Point’; users bringing in their own access points, plugging them into your infrastructure and opening a big hole in your network.

Another more serious threat is the 'Soft Rogue Access Point’; this is where a user with a wireless lap-top plugs into the wired LAN, and the wireless card looks like an access point; very often a clever hacker can get access to a corporate network through such a laptop without the user even knowing.

Then we have a whole host of attacks such as honeypots, man in the middle attacks and a plethora of others, all aimed at disrupting service or obtaining users log-in and password credentials, just to make life interesting.

Secure Wireless?

Wireless can be made secure and Aruba has built a successful business around this. Aruba’s system not only offers very secure wireless access, but combines in one system a wireless intrusion detection and prevention system. Known as ‘RF Lock’ Aruba’s system can identify rogue wireless devices and attacking stations and actively turn them off; the system can even show – on a map – where the offending device is.

Case Study - How does Microsoft do it?

Aruba's mobility products were selected by Microsoft after an extensive technical evaluation that placed Aruba, as well as competitive products, through some of the most rigorous security, scalability, performance and functionality testing performed to date.

During the testing, performed by some of the world's leading independent laboratories including Lometrix in South San Francisco and the University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab, Aruba garnered top overall scores across over 35 different tests. The tests measured performance, integration and conformance. The results of Aruba's testing by Microsoft are available at http://www.arubanetworks.com/.

By centralizing the control and security of its WLAN infrastructure with Aruba, Microsoft will be able to reduce operational cost and complexity, better manage and optimize the wireless environment and gain better control over its RF domain anywhere in the world from a single location.

'The advancements in the wireless space since Microsoft Corporation first implemented our global wireless network in 1999 are truly exciting,' said Sunjeev Pandey, senior director of Microsoft IT.

The new state-of-the-art mobility system becomes the centre piece for a number of key initiatives within Microsoft such as:

- wireless integration with its Network Access Protection (NAP) architecture

- tight interworking between new mobile technologies and Microsoft's next-generation operating system,

- development of Microsoft's Wireless Provisioning System (WPS) for a worldwide guest access solution

- the testing of IPv6-over-wireless to enable mobile device proliferation in the enterprise

- the provisioning of 'wireless only' offices where wired connectivity and LAN hardware is not required for each client machine.

More information

Aruba´s Mobile Edge solution addresses the confidentiality, integrity and availability of an organisation’s data and does so without requiring changes to the existing network. For more information or to discuss the technology with one of Servo’s consultants please email aruba@servo.co.uk.