WiFi Alliance Approves Legra

BURLINGTON, Mass. -– Legra Systems, innovators in wireless LAN switching solutions, announced today Wi-Fi Protected Access™ (WPA) certification by the Wi-Fi Alliance™. This security benchmark ensures Legra’s products are interoperable with other WPA-certified products. The Legra Switch (LS2012) becomes the industry’s first WLAN switching solution to achieve WPA certification, making Legra’s products the most secure wireless switching solution on the market today.

“Legra Systems is commended for being one of the first companies to receive Wi-Fi Protected Access™ certification for its Legra Switch. This level of commitment to interoperable security is a clear commitment to the evolving security needs of their customers,” commented Frank Hanzlik, Managing Director of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Legra’s WLAN solution achieved WPA certification after successfully completing rigorous interoperability testing procedures conducted at one of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s independent interoperability certification laboratories. The lab executed two test plans on the Legra solution with a cross section of previously tested and WPA certified member devices and components including client operating systems, client NIC cards, and RADIUS servers. Legra’s product suite becomes the first WLAN switch to receive the official seal of WPA certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance.

“Providing robust, standards-based security remains the tipping point for widespread adoption of enterprise wireless networking,” said Paul DeBeasi, Vice President of Marketing at Legra Systems. “Achieving WPA certification underscores Legra’s commitment to provide enterprises with a wireless networking solution that delivers the highest levels of security and performance.”

Developed by the IEEE and Wi-Fi Alliance, WPA is a new standards-based security protocol that utilizes strong encryption and authentication techniques to deliver robust data protection and access control for wireless local area networks. WPA enhances the previous security standard, the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol, which has no automatic key rotation, poor data integrity protection and no per user authentication, making it quite vulnerable to targeted network attacks. Conversely, WPA utilizes the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) for per packet key rotation, the Michael algorithm for robust data integrity protection and 802.1x/EAP for per user authentication. The combination of strong encryption, robust data integrity and per-user authentication in WPA provides enterprise networks with a strong shield to protect against increasingly sophisticated and destructive network threats.

“WPA certification is a significant achievement for Legra and sets them apart from many other solutions on the market today,” said Brian Mansfield, chief security officer of the Mansfield Group. "As security standards continue to evolve, enterprise customers are seeking viable alternatives that will help protect their WLAN investments. Support for WPA along, with the first Parallel Priority Cryptography chip (PPC™), enables Legra to offer both interoperability, as well as the best of breed in existing and future security standards."

Legra Systems Inc.