Ubiquiti Networks

Last updated
Ubiquiti Inc.
TypePublic
NYSE:  UI
Russell 1000 Index component
Industry Computer networking, energy
FoundedJune 2005;15 years ago (2005-06)
Founders Robert Pera
Headquarters
New York City
,
United States
Products Computer networking devices
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$1.016 billion (2018) [1]
Increase2.svg US$314.142 million (2018) [1]
Increase2.svg US$196.290 million (2018) [1]
Total assets Increase2.svg US$1.022 billion (2018) [1]
Total equity Decrease2.svg US$315.748 million (2018) [1]
Number of employees
843 (as of June 30, 2018) [1]
Website www.ui.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Ubiquiti Inc. (formerly Ubiquiti Networks, Inc.) is an American technology company founded in San Jose, California, in 2005. Now based in New York City, [2] Ubiquiti manufactures and sells wireless data communication and wired products for enterprises and homes under multiple brand names.

Contents

Products

Ubiquiti's first product line was its "Super Range" mini-PCI radio card series, which was followed by other wireless products.

The company's Xtreme Range (XR) cards operated on non-standard IEEE 802.11 bands, which reduced the impact of congestion in the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands.[ citation needed ] In August 2007 a group of Italian amateur radio operators set a distance world record for point-to-point links in the 5.8 GHz spectrum. Using two XR5 cards and a pair of 35 dBi dish antennas, the Italian team was able to establish a 304 km (about 188 mi) link at data rates between 4 and 5 Mbit/s. [3]

The company (under its "Ubiquiti Labs" brand) also manufactures a home-oriented wireless mesh network router and access point combination as a consumer-level product, called AmpliFi. [4]

Brands

A UniFi AP Ubiquiti Unifi AP.jpg
A UniFi AP

Ubiquiti product lines include UniFi, EdgeMax, AirMax, AirFiber, and UFiber. The most common product line is UniFi which is focused on home and business wired and wireless networking. EdgeMax is a product line dedicated to wired networking, containing only routers and switches. AirMax is a product line dedicated to creating point-to-point (PTP) and point-to-multi-point (PtMP) links between networks. AirFiber and UFiber are used by Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP), and Internet Service Providers (ISP) respectively.

Security issues

U-Boot configuration extraction

In 2013, it was discovered that there was a security issue in the version of the U-Boot boot loader shipped on Ubiquiti's devices. It was possible to extract the plaintext configuration from the device without leaving a trace using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and an Ethernet cable, revealing information such as passwords. [5]

While this issue is fixed in current versions of Ubiquiti hardware, despite many requests and acknowledging that they are using this GPL-protected application, Ubiquiti refused to provide the source code for the GNU General Public License (GPL)-licensed U-Boot. [6] [7] This made it impractical for Ubiquiti's customers to fix the issue. [6] The GPL-licensed code was released eventually. [8]

Uparte Trojan

It was reported by online reporter Brian Krebs, on June 15, 2015, that "Recently, researchers at the Fujitsu Security Operations Center in Warrington, UK began tracking [the] Upatre [trojan software] being served from hundreds of compromised home routers — particularly routers powered by MikroTik and Ubiquiti’s AirOS". Bryan Campbell of the Fujitsu Security Operations Center in Warrington, UK reported, "We have seen literally hundreds of wireless access points, and routers connected in relation to this botnet, usually AirOS", said Bryan Campbell, lead threat intelligence analyst at Fujitsu. "The consistency in which the botnet is communicating with compromised routers in relation to both distribution and communication leads us to believe known vulnerabilities are being exploited in the firmware which allows this to occur". [9]

IPO

On October 13, 2011, Ubiquiti had its initial public offering (IPO) at 7.04 million shares, at $15 per share., [10] raising $30.5 million. [11]

United States sanctions against Iran

In March 2014, Ubiquiti agreed to pay $504,225 to the Office of Foreign Assets Control after it allegedly violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. [12]

Open-source licensing compliance

In 2015, Ubiquiti was accused of violating the terms of the GPL license for open-source code used in their products. [7] The original source of the complaint updated their website on May 24, 2017, when the issue was resolved. [8] In 2019, Ubiquiti was reported to continually violate GPL. [13]

Other

In 2015, Ubiquiti revealed that it lost $46.7 million when its finance department was tricked into sending money to someone posing as an employee. [14]

Related Research Articles

IEEE 802.11 Specifications for Wi-FI wireless networks

IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) protocols, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) Wi-Fi computer communication in various frequencies including, but not limited to, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, and 60 GHz frequency bands.

Wi-Fi Wireless local area networks technology based on IEEEs 802.11 standards

Wi-Fi is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access. Wi‑Fi is a trademark of the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance, which restricts the use of the term Wi-Fi Certified to products that successfully complete interoperability certification testing. As of 2017, the Wi-Fi Alliance consisted of more than 800 companies from around the world. As of 2019, over 3.05 billion Wi-Fi enabled devices are shipped globally each year. Devices that can use Wi-Fi technologies include personal computer desktops and laptops, smartphones and tablets, smart TVs, printers, smart speakers, cars, and drones.

Zigbee IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols

Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and other low-power low-bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection. Hence, Zigbee is a low-power, low data rate, and close proximity wireless ad hoc network.

Wireless Internet service provider Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking

A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9, 5, 24, and 60 GHz bands or licensed frequencies in the UHF band, LMDS, and other bands from 6 GHz to 80 GHz.

AirPort Express

The AirPort Express is a Wi-Fi base station product from Apple Inc., part of the AirPort product line. While more compact and in some ways simpler than another Apple Wi-Fi base station, the AirPort Extreme, the Express offers audio output capability the Extreme lacks. The AirPort Express was the first AirPlay device to receive streamed audio from a computer running iTunes on the local network. AirPort Express outperforms the stringent requirements of the ENERGY STAR Program Requirements for Small Network Equipment (SNE) Version 1.0.

D-Link Corporation is a Taiwanese multinational networking equipment manufacturing corporation headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. It was founded in March 1986 in Taipei as Datex Systems Inc.

Netgear, Inc. is a multinational computer networking company based in San Jose, California, with offices in about 25 other countries. It produces networking hardware for consumers, businesses, and service providers. The company operates in three business segments: retail, commercial, and as a service provider.

Fortinet is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. It develops and markets cybersecurity products and services, such as firewalls, anti-virus, intrusion prevention and endpoint security.

High-speed multimedia radio

High-speed multimedia radio (HSMM) is the implementation of high-speed wireless TCP/IP data networks over amateur radio frequency allocations using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware such as 802.11 Wi-Fi access points. This is possible because the 802.11 unlicensed frequency bands partially overlap with amateur radio bands and ISM bands in many countries. Only licensed amateur radio operators may legally use amplifiers and high-gain antennas within amateur radio frequencies to increase the power and coverage of an 802.11 signal.

Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductors for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. Founded under the name T-Span Systems in 1998 by experts in signal processing and VLSI design from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and private industry. The company was renamed Atheros Communications in 2000 and it completed an initial public offering in February 2004 trading on NASDAQ under the symbol ATHR.

WaveLAN

WaveLAN was a brand name for a family of wireless networking technology sold by NCR, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Agere Systems as well as being sold by other companies under OEM agreements. The WaveLAN name debuted on the market in 1990 and was in use until 2000, when Agere Systems renamed their products to ORiNOCO. WaveLAN laid the important foundation for the formation of IEEE 802.11 working group and the resultant creation of Wi-Fi.

Cambium Networks is a fixed wireless networking system designed for wireless Internet service providers to provide Internet access. An American software company, it provides wireless technology, including Enterprise WiFi, switching solutions, Internet of Things, and fixed wireless broadband for enterprises. Publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange, it spun out of Motorola in October 2011.

Long-range Wi-Fi is used for low-cost, unregulated point-to-point computer network connections, as an alternative to other fixed wireless, cellular networks or satellite Internet access.

802.11 non-standard equipment equipment extending the Wi-Fi standards with priority technology

802.11 non-standard equipment is equipment that seeks to extend the Wi-Fi standard 802.11, by implementing proprietary features.

Operating system Wi-Fi support is the support in the operating system for Wi-Fi and usually consists of two pieces: driver level support, and configuration and management support.

DNOS or Dell Networking Operating System is a network operating system running on switches from Dell Networking. It is derived from either the PowerConnect OS or Force10 OS/FTOS and will be made available for the 10G and faster Dell Networking S-series switches, the Z-series 40G core switches and DNOS6 is available for the N-series switches.

Smartphone ad hoc networks are wireless ad hoc networks that use smartphones. Once embedded with ad hoc networking technology, a group of smartphones in close proximity can together create an ad hoc network. Smart phone ad hoc networks use the existing hardware in commercially available smartphones to create peer-to-peer networks without relying on cellular carrier networks, wireless access points, or traditional network infrastructure. Wi-Fi SPANs use the mechanism behind Wi-Fi ad-hoc mode, which allows phones to talk directly among each other, through a transparent neighbor and route discovery mechanism. SPANs differ from traditional hub and spoke networks, such as Wi-Fi Direct, in that they support multi-hop routing and relays and there is no notion of a group leader, so peers can join and leave at will without destroying the network.

IEEE 802.11ax, marketed as Wi-Fi 6 by Wi-Fi Alliance, is a Wi-Fi specification standard, and the successor to Wi-Fi 5. The 802.11ax standard is expected to be published in February 2021. It is designed to operate in license exempt bands between 1 and 6 GHz when they become available for 802.11 use. All Wi-Fi 6 devices work over the previously allocated 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. The Wi-Fi 6E extended designation is for products that also support the higher than 6 GHz standard.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ubiquiti Networks 2018 SEC Form 10-K".
  2. ↑ Witkowski, Wallace (September 18, 2017). "Ubiquiti shares hammered by Citron 'fraud' claim that contains little new evidence - MarketWatch". MarketWatch.com. Retrieved November 29, 2017. That may be a factor that led Ubiquiti’s auditor, PWC, to cite a lack of internal controls in 2015, and an eventual staff clear-out that led Ubiquiti to move its headquarters from San Jose, Calif., to New York City and change auditors to KPMG.
  3. ↑ "World Record 304km Wi-Fi connection". Gizmag.com. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Hands-on: Ubiquiti's Amplifi covers the whole house in a Wi-Fi mesh". Ars Technica. July 20, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Re: AirOS and Security: DUMP of configuration files with TFTP or other thing". Ubnt.com. July 16, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "GPL archive missing components". Ubnt.com. March 2, 2013. Archived from the original on December 9, 2016. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  7. 1 2 Riley Baird (April 7, 2015). "How Ubiquiti Networks Is Creatively Violating the GPL". LibertyBSD. Archived from the original on April 30, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Riley Baird (May 24, 2017). "N/A". LibertyBSD. Archived from the original on 2017-05-24. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Crooks Use Hacked Routers to Aid Cyberheists". June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Ubiquiti Networks IPO Priced To Work At $15?". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Annual report for fiscal year ended June 30, 2012". Form 10-K. US Securities and Exchange Commission. September 21, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Ubiquiti Networks settles with OFAC for alleged violations of Iran sanctions", Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, March 7, 2014.
  13. ↑ Denver Gingerich (October 2, 2019). "When companies use the GPL against each other, our community loses". SFconservancy. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Fraudsters duped this company into handing over $40 million". Fortune.com. August 10, 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.