Start-up gets federal nod for Wi-Fi firewall
Source: ZDNet UK
Silicon Valley start-up Cranite Systems has gained federal approval for its 'WirelessWall' software and signed up HP as a reseller
A start-up's wireless security product has won approval from a federal standards organisation, paving the way for resale by Hewlett-Packard to the US government.
Cranite Systems, a 3-year-old start-up based in San Jose, California, said its WirelessWall Software Suite, a firewall for wireless networks, had earned the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a division of the US Department of Commerce.
The certification, granted 21 March, makes Cranite eligible to sell its wares to the US government. Computer giant Hewlett- Packard plans to resell Cranite's software to government agencies.
"It's a requirement -- if you want to sell wireless security products to the government you need FIPS," said Max Mancini, Cranite's vice president of engineering. "The NIST certification says we're using the right cryptography algorithms and protecting and generating our keys correctly.
Even from a non-government customer perspective, this is a stamp of approval that says Cranite has done what they're claiming."
