Cisco Systems Inc.
teamed up with Microsoft Corp. last month to announce the deployment of a new security standard for wireless LAN networks. Cisco said it worked with Microsoft to develop and deploy its implementation of the IEEE 802.1x and EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) security standard. Cisco is shipping support for the 802.1x draft standard on its Cisco Aironet 350 line of 802.11b wireless LANs, company officials said. The 802.1x draft uses standard security protocols such as EAP and Radius for centralized user identification, authentication, dynamic key management, and accounting, according to Cisco officials. Microsoft is Cisco’s largest customer for wireless LAN products.