Kuala Lumpur - October 14, 2004 - AirDefense, the leader in 24x7 wireless LAN security and monitoring discovered the Asia market is more familiar with wireless attacks than expected while collecting data at Hack in the Box, Malaysia's first and only non-profit network security conference, last week.

"Asia has typically lagged behind North America in wireless adoption by as much as six months to a year, however the types of attacks we are seeing are indicative that Asia realizes the same attacks that can be launched on the wired network transfer to the wireless environment," said Richard Rushing, chief security officer of AirDefense. "We have seen wired side attacks on the wireless in the past, but never at such an alarming rate. People at this conference exhibited a near hostile behavior when using wired tools to attack the WLAN."

Rushing hypothesizes the more sophisticated attacks are due to more practice on the part of the hackers commenting, "To exploit the network hackers needs access to the network itself -- a university network, public library or most likely a hotspot. Once hackers are on the network they have to learn how to break or manipulate the VPN (virtual private networks). From those experiences hackers have created VPN manipulation tools that cause denial of service and classic man-in-the-middle attacks that redirect users from their intended connection to a stranger acting as the legitimate connection."

AirDefense also identified on of the first occurrences of the intersil chipset modification, the most prevalent 802.11b chipset. The modification of the chipsets breaks the 802.11 standard causing confusion for the chipset. Modified chipsets experience a constant chattering or jamming creating a denial of service and thereby preventing the device from communicating with an access point.

Throughout the day AirDefense studied the wireless LAN and identified more than 184 unique wireless devices attempting to connect to 48 access points (APs). Additionally AirDefense tracked and identified usage patterns, network bottlenecks and problematic stations and access points, indicative of the interference, performance degradation and impending risks, including:

"Sharing information such as this should alert companies to the ease with which hackers have learned to exploit the vulnerabilities of wireless LANs to break into an organization's networks. Organizations need to understand hackers enter through wireless backdoors rendering the millions of dollars spent of firewalls and wired intrusion detection systems obsolete. It is critical for organizations to monitor and protect their wireless network in order to ultimately maintain the security of wired side data," said Anil Khatod, chief executive officer of AirDefense.

About AirDefense, Inc.
AirDefense is the thought leader and innovator of wireless LAN security and operational support solutions. Founded in 2001, AirDefense pioneered the concept of 24x7 monitoring of the airwaves and now provides the most advanced solutions for rogue WLAN detection, policy enforcement, intrusion protection and monitoring the health of wireless LANs. As a key element of wireless LAN security, AirDefense complements wireless VPNs, encryption and authentication. Based on a secure appliance and remote sensors, AirDefense solutions scale to support single offices, corporate campuses or hundreds of locations. Blue chip companies and government agencies rely upon AirDefense solutions to secure and manage wireless LANs around the globe. For more information, go to http://www.airdefense.net or call 770.663.8115.

Media Contacts:
Heidi Litner
AirDefense, Inc.
770.663.8115 x 110
hlitner@airdefense.net

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