No wi-fi leaks thanks to Meru
A system purpose-built to prevent sensitive information 'leaking' out of office buildings is to be made available by Meru Networks. It prevents hackers sitting in the company's car parks from eavesdropping on wi-fi networks.
Meru's RF Barrier product is quite sophisticated, employing directional antennas mounted outside the walls and a special wireless access point (WAP) along the inside perimeter of a building.
The WAP inspects the traffic in real time to determine which data appertains to the WLAN being protected and is therefore designated as sensitive. It then tells the directional antenna to block that bit of the RF spectrum.
RF Barrier technology then uses the external antenna to block outbound traffic at the RF layer. Would-be attackers are limited in their ability to see useful packet information about the internal network.
Meru claims that 'parking lot attacks' – sometimes known as 'war-driving' – have proved successful in the past with one involving the theft of millions of users' credit card records.
One of the advantages of RF Barrier is that it can protect wi-fi networks which use older security protocols such as WEP or WPA/TKIP, as well as modern WPA2 and EAP protocols.
The system can be turned off so that employees can work outside the building in the summer if the organisation wants to let them.
In the UK given cellular signal blockers are banned in Britain.
The product should go on sale in September and be priced from $3,595.