Sprint Nextel uses technology from Alcatel-Lucent to provide
complete security to mobile workers on laptops.

With the proliferation of 3G networks in the United States and globally, more enterprises have started using these wide-area wireless networks to give mobile employees remote access to their intranets using a laptop. That access is a double-edged sword, since it provides return on investment advantages but also security risks.

Virtual private networks have been the principle way enterprise IT departments have kept their intranets secure from intruders. But what happens when the VPN isn’t being used? What if the laptop is stolen, or what happens when the mobile worker launches the browser without using a VPN?

One answer to that was provided earlier this year by Alcatel-Lucent, using technology out of Bell Labs originally under the Project Avros name but now called OmniAccess 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian. The technology was recently taken to market by Sprint Nextel with what the carrier calls SprintSecure Laptop Guardian. It uses a combination of hardware and software to not only provide security around-the-clock but also allow IT departments to manage the laptop itself with over-the-air updates.

The Alcatel-Lucent technology, now can be used with any wireless or wireline network, including 3G, Wi-Fi and LANs. Sprint is using it only for access via its EV-DO network.

The technology uses a PCMCIA card – an EV-DO card in Sprint’s case – that contains the CDMA radio as well as being an independent computer unto itself. Once installed, the card has to be plugged into the laptop in order to boot up the laptop. The card itself is secure, with its own battery, CPU, GPS, and authentication and encryption.

“It’s a mini-laptop for the laptop,” says Dor Skuler, the general manager of the product for Alcatel-Lucent.

CONSTANT CONNECTION
Tom Moore, director of wireless data solutions for Sprint, says the PC card maintains a constant connection to the enterprise, even when the laptop is turned off, so that the IT department knows where the laptop is and can send software updates, including new virus patches, 24 hours a day. IT also can remotely kill the users’ ability to log in to the intranet and can prevent destruction of encryption keys.

Any time the laptop is powered up, the software automatically establishes a VPN connection so that corporate policies can be enforced, Moore says.

The second part of the solution is laptop management software that sits on the enterprise server, which gives the IT department the ability to fully manage the laptop remotely.

The initial implementation of the SprintSecure Laptop Guardian uses a separate VPN, but Moore and Skuler say future iterations will allow Laptop Guardian to be used with existing enterprise VPNs.

“Security is a huge issue for enterprises,” says Moore. He said Sprint had about 30 beta customers and that Laptop Guardian will be available commercially shortly.

ENTERPRISE FIT
Sandra Palumbo, analyst with Yankee Group, says the Laptop Guardian is the kind of security solution that would fit the need for businesses that want high levels of corporate data security. “The approach Sprint and Alcatel-Lucent have taken with this service will assist in solving a wide variety of data security and policy issues that companies face with their mobile workforces,” she says.

Moore says it only takes about one day for Sprint to integrate the Laptop Guardian into an enterprise IT system. Enterprises seeking something with the same kind of security typically have to cobble together something themselves using several different technologies, he says.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Laptop Guardian was tested earlier this year by the Visiting Nurses Association of Northern New Jersey, which needed the kind of security necessary to comply with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). That trial used the Verizon Wireless EV-DO network as well as Wi-Fi.

With corporate data security so high on priority lists of enterprises, tools such as these that provide constant connections will encourage mobile use while easing CFO’s minds 24/7.