Fluke Networks has announced a major upgrade to its market-leading
AirMagnet Enterprise wireless security solution in response to the growing
threat of hacker attacks.
Last year, hackers stole roughly 81.5 million records while carrying out
more than 740 confirmed data breaches. Many of the attacks targeted household
name brands, costing the global economy up to $575 billion annually, and
destroying consumer confidence.
Delivering timely dynamic threat updates, location tracking and alerting
of cellular or Wi-Fi devices, AirMagnet Enterprise is the first wireless
intrusion detection and prevention (WIDS/WIPS) solution that lets enterprises
and agencies enforce a 24×7 ‘no-wireless’ zone. It also helps organisations
meet stringent new PCI 3.0 compliance standards, includes a captive portal
support for assuring guest wireless networks, and provides 802.11ac detection,
location and blocking of rogue devices.
Given the rising occurrence of mobile data, mobile devices and security
breaches, it has become critical for organisations to be able to immediately
identify all rogue wireless activities, regardless of network type, and enforce
a no-wireless zone. This is especially important for companies that deal with
sensitive information and need to secure their vital data centres. AirMagnet
Enterprise provides complete unified wireless (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) and cellular
(3G, 4G LTE, CDMA) spectrum security across the entire wireless network
infrastructure.
Fluke Networks CTO David Coffin explains that AirMagnet Enterprise’s
improved event detection helps IT teams actively identify, locate and mitigate
cellular and Wi-Fi security threats such as unauthorised cellular and Wi-Fi
devices and jammers. It also enforces the implementation of a wireless-free
zone.
He notes that security and network operations not only have to contend
with the inherent dangers and performance impacts of BYOD on their networks,
but also the very real risk of espionage, hacking and malicious attacks from
inside or outside their corporate boundaries. AirMagnet Enterprise delivers
powerful new security capabilities to help IT combat these evolving
threats.
Security threats are never deliberately ignored by any organisation;
however, many believe their precautions are ‘good enough’. They rely on the
security features of access points or other wireless infrastructure components,
which are incapable of detecting all types of threats across every channel.
AirMagnet Enterprise can help organisations mitigate the consequences of
‘good enough’ wireless protection by addressing specific challenges:
Inadequate threat detection
Most access point security features perform only part-time scans of 44
standard Wi-Fi channels, when there are 201 non-standard extended channels
where threats can hide. AirMagnet scans all 245 Wi-Fi channels, protects
against more than 230 threats, and rapidly identifies and reacts to security
and performance problems.
Lengthy threat update cycles
Access point solutions require firmware updates to respond to new
threats, often taking months to release. They also require downtime to install,
creating significant security gaps. AirMagnet includes Dynamic Threat Update
technology, which enables rapid response to new threat signatures often within
24 hours of identification.
Limited Performance Reporting
Many wireless security solutions provide only cryptic reporting that’s
hard to decipher before taking action, increasing the burden on an already
overloaded IT administrator. AirMagnet’s unique Automated Health Check (AHC)
verifies the live client wireless environment for the entire WLAN connection
path, instantly pinpointing outages and slowdowns before users are affected.
Minimal forensic analysis
In addition to being aware of a security breach occurrence, IT teams
need detailed forensics to identify the root cause and eliminate it fast.
AirMagnet offers remote forensic packet capture at the point of event trigger, which
eliminates costly truck rolls and helps IT teams rapidly analyse and archive
the exact packet trace that caused the alarm.
Hidden monitoring gaps
Many wireless environments comprise of multiple access point types and
incompatible security features, creating holes in a supposedly comprehensive
security system. AirMagnet works in hybrid wireless architecture environments,
which eliminate security gaps and integration issues between disparate access
points.
AirMagnet Enterprise also helps organisations that access, store or
transmit cardholder data (CHD) and personally identifiable information (PII) by
meeting the latest PCI 3.0 regulatory requirements for penetration testing,
which went into effect on January 1, 2015.