Today ReefEdge Inc. announced that its wireless local area network security and management products have been approved for the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140 Level 2 certification, making it one of the few wireless LAN products to meet the rigorous government benchmark.
The FIPS 140-2 certification is administered by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST), and is required for cryptography-related products in use by federal government agencies.
Fort Lee, N.J.-based ReefEdge expects that the certification will enable it to increase its government wireless LAN deployments, said Sandeep Singhal, ReefEdge CTO. Since ReefEdge is only one of a few wireless LAN companies to attain the certification, he expects that it will help make the company's products stand out.
Other vendors who have received the certification -- such as Fortress Technologies Inc., and Certicom Corp. -- have seen a boost in government business and have been able to use the certification to differentiate themselves, said Chris Kozup, program manger with the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Meta Group.
While most commercial businesses don't necessarily mandate stringent security standards in the WLAN products they use, Singhal said that the financial services industries are starting to show some interested in FIPS 140-2 products.
Kozup said that he has not seen a particular push for FIPS-certified products in that market,
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but he said that the certification is a good sign for ReefEdge.
"You will find the occasional network guy that looks at the certification and says that it carries some additional weight."
ReefEdge has also announced that it has met the Department of Defense's Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Common Access Card (CAC) requirements.
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