PR releases

AirTight Networks Prevents WiFi Driver Hacks Demonstrated at BlackHat Conference

Three solutions already shipping - for the enterprise, for the home, and for the roaming laptop.

Mountain View, CA - August 9, 2006 - AirTight Networks™, the leading provider of wireless intrusion prevention solutions, today announced that three of its products:

can be deployed today - to prevent laptop users from getting hacked through the WiFi driver exploit demonstrated at the BlackHat Conference last week.

At BlackHat, two researchers demonstrated that they could utilise wireless drivers to establish a connection with and seize control of a laptop, even if the laptop was not associated with any AP. The demonstration consisted of two steps – forcing the victim’s laptop to establish a connection to the hacker’s PC, and then exploiting tools to seize control of the laptop once the connection was established.

This exploit could allow hackers to attack anyone’s laptop – as long as a wireless capability is installed and enabled (either an external wireless card, or the internal Centrino client in most laptops). A hacker outside a building could attack laptops inside the building. Hackers in airports or on airplanes could attack laptop users in the vicinity (within radio range – typically 100 feet). And, the potential risks include loss of confidential data, identity theft, corruption of the victim’s machine, installation of spyware, etc.

AirTight Networks provides a family of solutions to prevent this exploit.

 SpectraGuard Enterprise and SpectraGuard Sentry both prevent this exploit by detecting the connection being established between the hacker’s device and the victim’s laptop - and shutting down this connection, protecting the laptop. SpectraGuard Enterprise addresses the needs of enterprise facilities, while SpectraGuard Sentry is targeted at small branch/remote offices, or homes/home offices. SpectraGuard SAFE is a security agent for endpoints that can be deployed on laptops to prevent the hacker’s machine from successfully establishing a connection with the victim’s laptop. All of these products are shipping and available immediately.

“We’ve spent the last few days getting more details and validating that our equipment can indeed prevent these exploits,” said Pravin Bhagwat, chief technology officer at AirTight Networks. “The weaknesses that these two researchers demonstrated are actually not new. Wireless creates a whole new category of security risks and exposures - both for individuals at home and for enterprises. AirTight was founded 4 years ago – to address and prevent these threats. We now have customers around the world who can rest easy knowing that they are protected from these threats.”

AirTight Networks’ SpectraGuard Enterprise has established its industry leadership position by delivering the key elements of an effective wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS):

detecting and correctly classifying wireless threats - to catch all threats, while minimising false alarms preventing (multiple, simultaneous) wireless threats - while continuing to scan for new ones accurately locating the wireless threats on a floor map - so they can be removed.

As shown in the February 2006 Tolly Group report, the March 2006 Information Security Magazine review of WIPS solutions, and the May 2006 Tower Group report - AirTight’s SpectraGuard Enterprise outperforms its competitors in wireless intrusion prevention functionality.

About AirTight Networks

Founded in 2002, AirTight Networks is the leader in wireless intrusion prevention and performance management (WIPPM) solutions. AirTight Networks’ SpectraGuard® family of solutions provides enterprises and service providers with around-the-clock wireless monitoring and automatic intrusion prevention, while managing wireless LAN network performance for maximum capacity and uptime. The SpectraGuard family of products is the industry’s only solution that correctly classifies wireless devices and events; and automatically identifies, automatically stops, and accurately locates wireless security risks and attacks. AirTight Networks is a privately held company based in Mountain View, CA. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.airtightnetworks.net