* Columbitech leverages small-footprint standard
My last newsletter touched on the issue of getting strong security mechanisms onto smaller and older Wi-Fi devices, such as phones and scanners. Some of these devices have memory limitations and often run older or proprietary operating systems. These devices can be hard to fit with the latest Wi-Fi security technology, causing them to leave a security gap in enterprise security rollouts.
Wireless security software company Columbitech announced at the recent Interop trade show in Las Vegas a potential plug for the gap.
First, the company announced a wireless VPN solution for 802.11-based VoIP phones that allows session persistence as users roam among any wireless IP-based networks. In other words, callers can wander out of range of a Wi-Fi signal or between a Wi-Fi hot spot and a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network, while the Columbitech middleware retains the session information and puts the call back on track. The notion is similar in spirit to Columbitech’s existing roaming VPN solution for data, as well as NetMotion Wireless’ Mobility XE offering, but is applicable to retaining voice sessions as well as data sessions.
The VPN leverages Wireless TLS technology, a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum standard that was subsumed several years ago by the Open Mobile Alliance, in an 11K-byte-memory footprint and using an abbreviated handshake. The software can be installed before or after market on small devices, explains Tobias Englund, Columbitech’s vice president of technology. It can also be used now in soft phone clients, and smart phones running the Microsoft Mobile 2003 could install and use the Columbitech software, he says.
Columbitech has created an interoperability testing and certification program designed for wireless device manufacturers to ensure their wireless devices can support the VPN client. The program is designed to test and certify the interoperability of wireless computing devices, laptops, handheld scanners, handheld biometric devices, and legacy devices with proprietary or non-standard operating systems.
