With a new generation of Madison Avenue television commercials eloquently overstating the risks of IT espionage and compromised corporate data, the salespersons hawking the latest in network-access gear are more likely than ever to play upon those fears in their presentations to executive-suite check signers.

How else can a business protect itself from the legions of body-pierced, tattooed sport hackers who break into networks just for the fun of it?

But as wireless LANs (local area networks) become more of an expectation than a novelty in corporate IT infrastructures, both security strategies and value-added features for enterprise network managers are sure to evolve. Beyond simply stonewalling unwanted users and war-chalking opportunists, businesses will seek to provide clear thresholds for distinct levels of network access.

Let the Dogs Out

Boston-based startup Newbury Networks does claim that its Wi-Fi Watchdog application can handle intruders. But the company wants to carve out a piece of the 802.11 market for itself by specializing in applications that also enable hot-spot management, mobile monitoring and analysis, and digital tours.

The Wi-Fi Watchdog features a dashboard element that allows administrators to upload floor plans and area maps in order to visually display user locations and device traffic. They can see user identification, location, and duration statistics and histories.

Visitors to a company might be authenticated and permitted to check their e-mail on a laptop computer while waiting in the lobby, for example, but would be preempted from establishing a network connection once they moved outside a predetermined zone.

In addition to preventing unwanted access to the LAN and alerting network administrators when an intruder attempts to log in, the Newbury Watchdog can pinpoint a user’s location in a network to within about five feet. At this point, you can send out the Dobermans or the German shepherds if you choose.

Who Goes There?

To ease their fears about security breaches and facilitate the management of “hundreds of disparate wireless connections,” corporations need to have a system that monitors the location of all 802.11 traffic, Newbury Networks president and CEO Michael Maggio told NewsFactor.

The intrinsic value for the IT department, he said, is in “pinpointing the whereabouts of authorized and unauthorized wireless users, alerting them to the presence and exact location of rogue access points, and detecting the myriads of unique scenarios that can lead to the hijacking of the wireless network.”

The Wi-Fi Watchdog determines a user’s position by processing signal-strength information and calculating timing data from the physical location of the access points. In other words, it triangulates a person’s location in much the same way that a cellular or satellite-based network does. But the location data is much more precise.

By combining access control, security and device-monitoring functionality in a single suite of WLAN products, Newbury hopes to see its location-enabled network solutions open a wide range of new possibilities and services for the enterprise — and for wireless ISPs.

Work of Art

Newbury’s LocalServer 3.0 is an application management platform designed to support the creation of new software that relies on specific location information from 802.11-based WLANs. The Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found that it could use the technology to educate visitors as they toured a large artwork collection housed on two floors of the property.

802.11-enabled iPAQ handhelds are used by guests and visitors as they walk among the sculptures and paintings in the hotel’s public areas, and detailed information on each piece is “pushed” to the users as they approach a viewing location.

This type of vertical-market functionality is just the beginning of what Newbury can expect from creative IT departments as they discover the value of knowing who is where on the network. The company is attracting the attention of museums, universities and hospitality businesses in addition to traditional enterprise customers.

“Authenticating the user and the device is the most basic component of a security strategy,” said Eric Ogren, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group’s security solutions and services practice. “With that fundamental foundation in place, other content-filtering and bandwidth-management functions become appropriate and can be enforced,” he told NewsFactor. “And then you can build upon that.”

Startups Charge Forward

Armed with venture-capital dollars, highly focused new companies like Newbury Networks are likely to challenge established LAN equipment vendors in terms of innovation. Finland’s Ekahau, for example, is integrating location information into its 802.11 products as new hardware- and software-based WLAN security products hit the market.

Also in the fray are such startups as Vernier Networks, NetMotion Wireless, Bluesocket, ReefEdge, AirDefense and others.

The Newbury Networks Wi-Fi Watchdog system is available for US$20,000 and runs on top of the company’s LocalServer 3.0.