According to the company, the Meru SG1000 security gateway has been formally recommended for validation at Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 Level 3, the highest security level thus far sought by any WLAN vendor.

Unlike Level 2, which provides evidence of a breach only long after one has occurred and requires constant on-premises crypto-officer supervision, Level 3 is expected to provide physical tamper-proof security mechanisms, including a hard epoxy enclosure, as well as strong identity-based authentication, the company added.

Upon certification, Meru’s enterprise customers will be able to ensure full FIPS 140-2 compliance of their wireless networks by adding an SG1000 to an existing deployment.

Sivaram Nayudu, product line director at Meru, said: As wireless becomes an increasingly important component of federal, defense and other government networks, users at these agencies need the same assurances of security that they have in their wired networks.