Symbol brings MobiusGuard to the Middle East

Symbol MobiusGuard™ delivers increased flexibility and cost-effective networking protection, without compromising application and mobile device security and performance.

"Wireless networking has shown a dramatic increase in uptake in the Middle East in the last six months, but many customers have concerns about security. We believe that we have assembled the best security methods available today in a straightforward and comprehensive suite, so that we can help our customers here make an intelligent security adoption decision," said Sunil Chadha, Regional Manager, Symbol Technologies Middle East.

MobiusGuard™ is a complete set of security mechanisms, enhanced for wireless mobility, that adhere to widely adopted security standards, enterprise policy requirements and wireless networking scenarios. Integral to this portfolio is Symbol's new AirBEAM Safe, the company's wireless virtual private network (WVPN) security software that runs on Symbol's application-specific wireless mobile computing devices running Microsoft Windows for Pocket PC software.

MobiusGuard includes the following set of security mechanisms that Symbol can implement:

Authentication: Kerberos, EAP/TLS (Extensible Authentication Protocol/Transport Layer Security) and RADIUS (Remote Access Dial-In User Service)

Encryption: KeyGuard(R) (Symbol's enhanced Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) encryption implementation based on the forthcoming IEEE 802.11i standard) as well as scheduled support for NIST (National Information Security Standards)-certified FIPS 140-2 with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption.

VPN Tunneling: AirBEAM® Safe, which secures wireless devices while maintaining continuous (always-on) authentication and secure VPN connection, is virtual private networking for wireless mobile devices that uses WTLS (Wireless Transport Layer Security) standard security protocol

Architecting: VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) support, which allows different classes of user access through a single access point.

MobiusGuard™ features are fully integrated into the Symbol Spectrum24(R) High Rate 4131 Access Point. In Symbol's enterprise-class Wi-Fi certified product, authentication and encryption mechanisms can operate simultaneously or can be configured to operate individually, while VPNs and VLANs operate as robust stand-alone security architectures. The 4131 Access Point can also detect the presence and location of unauthorized and/or "rogue" access points and alert network administrators to take appropriate action.

Industry standard authentication, key distribution, and encryption mechanisms, like Kerberos - the advanced security with fast roaming for highly mobile and voice applications, EAP/TLS, RADIUS and TKIP, offer cost-effective ways to secure data and prevent unauthorized users from accessing enterprise networks. VPNs and VLAN offer security through the inherent network design.

AirBEAM® Safe delivers true end-to-end privacy, integrity, and authentication for wireless devices. AirBEAM® Safe, the Wireless Virtual Private Network (WVPN), also enables Symbol devices to maintain continuous authentication when roaming between virtual-private wireless local-area and wireless wide-area networks. With AirBEAM® Safe, Symbol protects the customer's legacy equipment by extending, rather than replacing, existing communications equipment to deliver security to the industry's installed base of Microsoft Windows for Pocket PC mobile devices deployed in a wide variety of applications, including baggage reconciliation, inventory management and route accounting.

Symbol's wireless VLAN architecture can operate within a single Symbol Spectrum24 High Rate Access Point to allow different levels of network access. This feature is ideal for scenarios in which a single Wireless LAN (WLAN) supports both public and private users. Symbol expects to deploy its VLAN security feature for corporate customers who want to offer public users the added service of wireless Internet access over the same wireless network used by their own employees or enterprise workers for mobile computing business applications. For example, in an airport, Symbol's VLAN capability can ensure 'closed' network access to airline staff who may be checking-in passengers from a wireless PDA, and 'open' access to passengers in waiting areas for wireless Internet connectivity.

Additional deployment scenarios include lobbies or visitor offices at corporations, waiting rooms in hospitals, open-space areas at universities and guest rooms in hotels. Symbol's VLAN feature applies industry standard IEEE 802.1p/Q VLANs to WLANs.
Symbol has selected those security mechanisms that can be easily integrated with commonly deployed enterprise networking and server operating systems, including UNIX, Solaris, Microsoft Windows NT(R), Windows(R) 2000, Linux and application specific embedded OSs.

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