Cisco is trying to eliminate the need for a separate security overlay on wireless networks

The company has launched the Cisco Adaptive Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (wIPS) Enhanced Local Mode (ELM), which embeds software for making wireless networks compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) directly in Cisco access points.

Chris Kozup, Cisco director of mobility solutions, notes that wireless networks have become a weak PCI DSS link, especially in retail scenarios. Existing wireless networks require companies to deploy a separate wireless security overlay. Cisco is removing that need to deploy and manage that separate overlay by embedding PCI DSS security functionality in access points that can be managed using one unified Cisco console. Kozup says that serves to not only reduce operational costs, it cuts the costs of deploying PCI DSS security in half.

Unfortunately, the latest PCI DSS 2.0 standard doesn’t directly address wireless security issues, even though wireless networks have been involved in some recent high-profile security breaches.

While most people would agree that the PCI DSS 2.0 standard is still flawed, Kozup says that solution providers need to remember that the standard describes a minimum threshold for security, which means there are still plenty of opportunities for solution providers when it comes to security.