By Bob Emro, CEPS

UNH computer scientists will work with Meetinghouse Data Communications to improve the security of wireless networks.

Meetinghouse expects to eventually spend about $150,000 to support the UNH researchers for a year. “This is a significant investment for a company of our size,” said Meetinghouse President Paul Goransson. “But you can accomplish a lot in a year working with the university, so it’s worth it.” Goransson should know; he started the Portsmouth-based company while a UNH graduate student. In 1995, he earned the first computer science Ph.D. granted by the university.

Current wireless security software is good at confirming the identity of users logging on to a network, but more research is needed to protect against computer viruses, according to UNH computer science professor Radim Bartos. “Protection is a two-way street,” he said. “Besides blocking bad users, you want to make sure that a good user with an infected machine does not enter the network, or that users with healthy machines do not enter infected networks.”

UNH Research Project Manager Scott Valcourt will work with Bartos and graduate student Myung-Sun Kim to add to the standards governing network security programs, known as the Extensible Authentication Protocol or EAP. This will create a framework that will enable companies like Meetinghouse to address these challenges, and others likely to arise in the future.

“We are very excited. This entrepreneurial approach is the kind of academic/industry collaboration that forms the next generation,” said Valcourt.  “Besides giving a local company an edge in developing leading commercial software ahead of the market, we believe our work will benefit the worldwide communications community.”

Meetinghouse is the leading supplier of advanced 802.1X and EAP-based network security solutions for providing mutual authentication on wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks. Meetinghouse supports a wide selection of operating system platforms and authentication methods to provide enterprises with maximum flexibility for Endpoint Security and Integrity. The company markets to both enterprises and global hardware OEMs, and is at the forefront of standards-based 802.1X wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi authentication technologies. Meetinghouse’s 802.1X Core Supplicant Services enable leading networking companies to rapidly support and deploy 802.1X, WPA, EAP, and Cisco Compatible Extensions enabled products. For more information on Meetinghouse, AEGIS SecureConnect or other products, visit www.mtghouse.com.