Boston - August 3, 2005 - Newbury Networks Inc., (www.newburynetworks.com) the industry's first and only provider of location-based wireless management and security solutions, today announced the company has completed a project conducted on site at Defcon 13. Newbury's WiFi Watchdog™ was used to monitor and map wireless activity at the site, allowing all show attendees to see the precise location of all wireless devices and all connections between wireless devices at the conference.
A team from Newbury Networks worked with the Digital Wolves, an independent group of security professionals who run the venerated "Wall of Sheep" project which finds and publicly identifies users who expose their identity via unsecured connections. Newbury was tasked with supplementing the "Wall of Sheep" by locating WiFi devices, identifying unsecured activity, and detecting wireless attacks. Newbury created a floor plan of the conference space and mapped the hall's "RF fingerprint" to allow for pinpoint identification of wireless devices' location. Newbury projected a large wall display, providing attendees a real-time "air-traffic control" view of wireless activity using Newbury Network's award-winning WiFi Watchdog.
"Defcon is famous for its culture of anonymity and aggressive exercising of secretive security attacks. In recent years, these attacks are increasingly conducted on the inherently invisible wireless networks," said Michael Maggio, president and CEO, Newbury Networks, Inc. "Anyone with basic tools could have known the attacks were happening. The trick is in stopping attacks and resolving security vulnerabilities. Locating the source of attacks for the Digital Wolves and others was particularly satisfying given the audience and competitive environment Defcon is famous for. Our experience at Defcon 13 confirms the premise that accurate and precise location is required for truly secure wireless."
During the course of the project, WiFi Watchdog collected a rich set of data and located volumes of malicious wireless activity, including:
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5637 fake MAC Addresses
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764 spoofed Access Point addresses
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63 rogue APs
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235 client connections to rogue APs
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57 different denial of service attacks.
More importantly, WiFi Watchdog also helped Defcon 13 attendees physically locate both the sources of wireless attacks and find unsecured "sheep" who were unaware that their identity was exposed so that those attacks and vulnerabilities could be eliminated.
"The Digital Wolves were very excited to collaborate with Newbury Networks to bring WiFi Watchdog to Defcon 13 for the 'Wall of Sheep',." said Cbyter, a member of the Digital Wolves and a security expert by trade. "The primary charter of the 'Wall of Sheep' is educational. The ability to use WiFi Watchdog to demonstrate the ease of locating, monitoring, and tracking wireless devices adds a new capability for the Digital Wolves to show security professionals how security can be improved. Location-based wireless security exists, and Newbury Networks delivered a tremendous educational opportunity for the attendees of Defcon."
Through its patented technology, WiFi Watchdog incorporates both wireless IDS and IPS to protect networks from wireless threats, whether or not a facility has an approved wireless LAN. By accurately determining the precise location of wireless devices and tracking every connection between devices, WiFi Watchdog can find and eliminate all unwanted wireless activity without requiring the intervention of IT staff.
Newbury Networks is the provider of the industry's first and only location-based management and security solutions that enable IT/Security professionals to locate, manage and secure WLANs. Newbury's products provide unprecedented security through its patented location-based tracking and perimeter security capabilities.
Newbury's WiFi Watchdog and WiFi Workplace™ product have won numerous awards and accolades including Network World's Best of Tests™ and Datamation's 2005 Product of the Year Award.
Newbury's products provide breakthrough capabilities for managing and securing WLANs by location - ultimately resulting in enhanced security and system performance. Its server-based approach enables content and network provisioning, tracking, logging and analysis. Newbury Networks was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Boston.
The Digital Wolves (http://www.digitalwolves.net/) is a network of affiliated security professionals providing services to a wide variety of corporate and governmental clients. Every member of the Digital Wolves is a proven expert in systems and network security. Collectively the Digital Wolves represent a depth of experience with clients of all shapes and sizes, and breadth of industry certifications and graduate degrees from leading universities.
