Demand for mobility and cloud-based functionality continues to soar, with Aruba wireless leading the way—now serving 80 percent of all Fortune 100 companies including Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook. Following its public offering in 2007 and subsequent acquisition by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, the company saw its wireless networking capabilities broaden even further into the end-to-end solution offered today. Aruba has become a $2.5 billion wireless network provider that offers high-performance connectivity and security, recognized by Gartner as a leader in the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Magic Quadrant for innovation and execution.
This is in part due to the company’s winning mobile-first approach, which integrates both wired and wireless access along with IoT support, cloud applications, network security and management. This unique approach provides businesses with the flexibility to scale up or out to accommodate dynamic user or IoT demands. And customers enjoy business class performance, numerous management options, and sophisticated security within one single architecture spanning any number of locations including home offices. Beyond this, Aruba provides for the ability to choose, retain, and integrate with best-of-breed solutions.
But as more users rely on wireless capabilities to manage all aspects of their professional and personal lives, new avenues of attack have been designed and launched with the aim of circumventing network security. Even WPA2, which replaces WEP and WPA and has become the strongest and most widely used wireless security protocol, is vulnerable to unauthorized access or attempts to inject malware. Most notable was the recent KRACK attack, which targeted WPA2’s four-way handshake for user authentication.
Wireless security standards provide for a first line of defense against such attacks. And beyond this, as new vulnerabilities are exposed, vendors work diligently to update firmware for wireless networking equipment along with access points. Products like Aruba RFProtect can provide one more layer of protection by consistently scanning networks and detecting when intruders breach a network’s wireless access points.
Meanwhile the Wi-Fi alliance, a worldwide network of companies, recently announced its focus throughout the remainder of the year as the security landscape continues to evolve. Not only have they reiterated their commitment to enhancing WPA2, which offers protection to users still dependent on legacy devices, but they’ve concurrently announced four new capabilities for enterprise and personal Wi-Fi networks as part of the newest Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™ security protocol.
Securing guest wireless users in public places such as coffee shops, sports arenas, and stadiums will focus on individualized encryption streams over the wireless to help secure the traffic of each individual network user while still being an “open” and inherently insecure network. Security such as this could benefit the wireless networks in a business setting such as different types of payment solutions and more.
This new suite of features is slated to build on the success of WPA2 while also delivering more robust protection for those who use passwords that are weak in comparison to the complex string of letters and characters recommended. Also integrated will be a simplified security configuration process for devices with limited to no display interface along with enhanced data encryption for stronger user privacy within open networks. A 192-bit security suite will also meet the Commercial National Security Algorithm (CNSA) to provide an elevated level of protection in-line with security system requirements that blanket leading industrial, government, and defense organizations. Both Aruba Networks and Wi-Fi Alliance are expected to announce updates and implementation guides as details arise.
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Learn more at: http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Technology-Blog/WPA3-The-Solution-to-our-Problems/ba-p/358619.