Aruba Networks, a global player of wireless LANs and secure mobility solutions, has claimed that Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is using its FIPS 140-2 validated teleworker solutions to provide secure, “instant-on” network access for the agency’s traveling resolution and receivership specialists.
Reportedly, prior to deploying Aruba, the FDIC used costly, labor-intensive dedicated circuits and virtual private network (VPN) services between its data center and the field teams. This design proved very difficult to scale as the number of teams escalated during the recent banking crisis, and was out of step with the mobile access needs of the field teams. Since these teams move regularly, the FDIC needed a remote networking solution that could easily follow them.
It has been reported that Aruba provided the FDIC with FIPS 140-2 validated wireless teleworker kits configured for small or large teams. The small team kits include a single Aruba Remote Access Point (RAP) and provide Wi-Fi and wired connectivity with government-grade security to teams of 5-10 users. The large team kits include a pre-configured wireless LAN with upwards of 16 indoor and ruggedized outdoor access points. The network uses Aruba’s FIPS 140-2 validated resilient, self-healing mesh to link access points without laying any data cabling. Mesh allows data, voice, or video signals to hop wirelessly from access point to access point with the security of end-to-end encryption.
Dave Logan, general manager of Federal Solutions at Aruba, said: “The Aruba teleworker field kits have significantly reduced the time required to activate a team to just minutes instead of days, using an instant-on solution that can be set-up and taken down with minimal IT involvement. Equally significant, by replacing the previous VPN system, the FDIC was able to do away with client software and management issues. Now users need only authenticate to their laptop or PDA using built-in wireless LAN support and they’re on the network. The FDIC gets end-to-end transmission and application security with no fuss or bother.”
“Aruba’s policy-enforcement firewalls run at the data center as well as in the field kit RAPs and controllers, and provide identity-based security, Quality of Service control, and traffic management. The firewall classifies traffic on the basis of user identity, device type, location, and time of day, and provides differentiated access for different classes of users. Access is tightly controlled, and each user’s application traffic is inspected and validated against security policies to ensure compartmentalization between user groups inside the FDIC,” he added.
