New Intrusion Prevention For Wi-Fi Networks From Cisco

The new software will be a boon in particular for retailers because it will help them comply with credit card company data security standards.

"On Wednesday, Cisco announced a free software update for its 11n Wi-Fi access points that will enable them to run in a new mode, dubbed Enhanced Local Mode (ELM). Due to arrive in a March software update, ELM will enable the access points to feed information to Cisco's adaptive wireless intrusion prevention system (IPS).

'With this new feature, retail businesses will be able to use the same access points they're already using for data, voice, and video to also monitor their radio frequency (RF) spectrum for unauthorized attacks over their wireless network,' blogged Ben Stricker, Cisco's public relations manager for wireless networking. 'Previously, these same retailers had to use a separate overlay network for data, voice, and video in addition to a network for intrusion prevention.'"