We are really excited here at AirTight.  AirTight achieved a rating of “Strong Positive” in Gartner’s 2011 Marketscope Report for Wireless LAN Intrusion Prevention Systems. published this week.  “Strong Positive” is the highest possible rating in a Gartner Marketscope. The July 2011 report was authored by John Girard, VP, Distinguished Analyst, John Pescatore, VP, Distinguished Analyst and Tim Zimmerman, Research Director at Gartner.

2011 Gartner Marketscope On Wireless LAN IPS matrix

If you are concerned about wireless threats to your enterprise, including unapproved personal smart devices, this report outlines the key highlights and limitations of each solution as well as feedback from real customers of each vendor.

The 2011 MarketScope report evaluated vendors on five criteria – customer experience, offering (product) strategy, overall viability (business unit, financial strategy, organization), marketing execution, and product/service.

The report notes in part, “Wi-Fi support is a standard extension of corporate networks, and enterprises must ensure the vulnerability management and intrusion prevention processes be extended to cover wireless and wired networks. WLAN security monitoring in the form of wireless intrusion prevention systems (WIPS) is required to ensure that supported WLAN performance is not impeded by interference or denial-of- service attacks, WLAN traffic is kept private and secure, users are prevented from installing unauthorized WLANs, and unsupported/unauthorized WLAN technologies are barred from operation.”***

***MarketScope Disclaimer

The MarketScope is copyrighted 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Della Lowe PCI, smartphones, WiFi Access, Wireless scanning, Wireless security, WLAN networks

A special Aberdeen Group report titled, “Wireless LAN 2011: Readying the Invisible Network for the Smart Revolution is the first industry study to track the impact of the rapid rise of smart devices on the WLAN.

The proliferation of embedded WiFi devices – smartphones, tablets, and Machine-to-Machine sensors (M2M) – and the explosion of wireless activity in and around the enterprise make maintaining a good security posture and meeting regulatory compliance requirements more challenging than ever.

According to Andrew Borg, senior research analyst, Wireless & Mobility for Aberdeen, and the report’s author, “A network is suboptimal unless network performance and security are both addressed. It isn’t enterprise class if it isn’t secure. As a consequence top-performing organizations are consistent in considering network security a high priority.”

This report is available immediately at no cost, courtesy of AirTight Networks.

Mike Baglietto Best practices, Compliance, mobile device management, smartphones, Wireless scanning, Wireless security, WLAN networks

After the TJX breach, the PCI security council strengthened their wireless security standard in an attempt to prevent such catastrophic incidents from reoccurring.  While some of the largest retailers strengthened their wireless security, small and medium businesses need to take a look at their own security practices because they are just as susceptible, maybe more.  In its annual Data Breach Investigations Report earlier this week, Verizon said “criminals are increasingly hitting smaller businesses as it becomes harder to steal financial data from big companies.”

War-driving is still more common than most people probably think, but the number of incidents reported by small and medium businesses is very low.  In most cases, WEP encryption is still the target.  In a recent Network World article reported that Seattle police are investigating a group of criminals attacking local businesses via Wi-Fi access points encrypted with the flawed WEP protocol.  Does this appear to be an isolated incident? No.  According to the Seattle police, this group of criminals has been suspected of these types wireless attacks for as many as *5 years*.

What is troubling is the number of retailers that continue to opt for a “compensating control” to address their wireless security requirements.  Even PCI’s “approved” methods including quarterly wireless scans and visual inspections are insufficient to protect your business.   Wi-Fi is everywhere, its easy to find an unencrypted (or poorly encrypted) signal.

Until companies understand the risk of properly secured Wi-Fi, they will remain susceptible.    Just ask the guys in Seattle.

Mike Baglietto Best practices, Compliance, PCI, Wireless scanning, Wireless security

If you are concerned about the proliferation of smart devices (Iphones, Droids, tablets) and the impact on  your network security, then this is a “can’t miss” webinar.   The inability to detect and block unauthorized personal devices from attaching to your network puts your business at risk.  AirTight CTO and Founder Pravin Bhawat discusses the challenges with mobile device management and the limitations of existing wireless network security measures.

Listen to the recorded webinar here.

Mike Baglietto 802.11n, Best practices, Compliance, mobile device management, smartphones, Wireless scanning, Wireless security, WLAN networks

Great webinar yesterday hosted by QSR Magazine featuring Yum Brands, Restaurants Unlimited and AirTight Networks.  Very insightful discussion with a couple forward thinking enterprises when it comes to deploying Wi-Fi in their restaurants, but the conversation is applicable to any retail environment really.  Clearly security and PCI compliance are still top of mind where wireless is concerned as expressed by the panelists as well as the research presented by AirTight Networks.  Over a period of 6 months, AirTight conducted a study of 725 retail networks and amazingly 24% of the still had at least one incidence of a rogue AP on the network, while 33% presented unsecure APs on the network.  68% of the networks studied has at least one wireless client vulnerability.

The recorded webinar is available here.

Mike Baglietto Best practices, Compliance, PCI, WiFi Access, Wireless scanning, Wireless security

Ban of WEP & TKIP

Wi-Fi Alliance has (finally) decided to take some giant steps in improving the state of wireless security. Starting Jan 2011, TKIP will be disallowed on new APs and from 2012, it will be disallowed on all Wi-Fi devices. Come Jan 2013, WEP will not be allowed on new APs and from 2014, WEP will be disallowed on all Wi-Fi devices. This is the good news. But, let us also get to the “bad” news.

 

Read more…

K N Gopinath PCI, Wireless scanning, Wireless security Rogue AP, TKIP, WEP, WiFi security, Wireless Intrusion Prevention, Wireless security

Last week we saw Google facing legal tangles for “accidental interception” of WiFi signals and this week it was Apple facing “mysterious disappearance” of WiFi signals during iPhone-4 demo at WWDC keynote. So “what’s going on”, does WiFi not like us any more? Well, because these things struck Eric and Steve, we got to hear about them, but in fact they strike Tom, Dick and Harry everyday.

But there is a way out of this WiFi chaos. Read more…

Hemant Chaskar Wireless scanning, Wireless security iphone 4 wifi, iphone launch wifi, iphone WiFi problem, WiFi performance, WiFi security

The WiFi snooping row  Google has gotten itself into seems to be far from over. In April, Google revealed that its Street View cars had been collecting basic data such as the MAC addresses and SSIDs of WiFi networks in the vicinity. But after German authorities asked Google to audit the data, it admitted to have been “mistakenly” snooping payload data from Open WiFi networks. Apparently, a piece of WiFi data analysis code, written by Google engineers back in 2006, was part of the software used by the Street View cars, in turn leading to the WiFi snooping (of about 600 GB of data across 30 countries!). Read more…

Kaustubh Phanse Best practices, Wireless scanning, Wireless security secure WiFi, WiFi, WiFi hotspot, Wireless security

With more enterprises deploying wireless LANs and employee-owned WiFi devices flooding enterprises, wireless LAN forensics is becoming a key component of any network forensic audit — whether to prove compliance with a regulation such as PCI DSS or in response to a security incidence. But wireless presents unique challenges to forensic audits.

Last month, at RSA 2010 conference in San Francisco, I had the oppourtunity to discuss this issue with experienced auditor and certified PCI QSA Jim Cowing. Here you can view the video recording of an abridged version of our RSA 2010 talk “Anatomy of a Forensic Audit: How Wireless Changes the Game.”

Let me summarize the highlights from the talk: Read more…

Kaustubh Phanse Best practices, Compliance, PCI, Wireless scanning, Wireless security Forensic audit, PCI DSS, WIPS, Wireless forensics, Wireless Intrusion Prevention

Wireless PCI Compliance in just 5 Minutes

This new product video from AirTight Networks shows how easy it is to automate your wireless PCI vulnerability scanning. AirTight SpectraGuard Online can be configured and running in as little as 5 minutes and 3 easy steps. AirTight eliminates the need to send staff to remote locations with a mobile analyzer to conduct the routine PCI scan for rogue APs. IT professionals should find this refreshing.

Watch AirTight’s wireless PCI scanning video

Mike Baglietto Compliance, PCI, Wireless scanning, Wireless security PCI