Growing Mobile Usage Ups Security Demand

Laptops, phones and PDAs are the most common devices now accessing wireless networks, but industry observers say wireless security will continue to evolve, given the many devices capable of being wirelessly enabled is limitless.

VPNs continue to be a popular wireless security choice because they can take advantage of the economies of scale and management facilities of large networks. Encrypted connections, such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) gateways, however, are now being used to provide additional security, particularly when linking remote offices and mobile users.

"SSL gateways are starting to gain traction as an alternative or addition to VPN security schemes," said Carl Blume, director of product marketing at Colubris Networks. "But VPNs are sort of the tried-and-true legacy security."

Pete Venuta, vice president of sales and marketing at Information Security Technology, a St. Paul, Minn.-based solution provider, said wireless security solutions based around remote users has grown from nearly zero to about 25 percent of his company's business in the last year or so.

"And that's growing," he said. "We've seen [demand for wireless security] climbing based around VPN architectures, which includes internal gateways and VPN devices, and the firewalls that would help secure those VPNs, as well as the client side of the equation," said Venuta. "It's tremendous."

Approaches to wireless security, including VPNs, vary and continuously evolve. Market researcher In-Stat/MDR addresses three markets including wireless infrastructure security, wireless device security and WLAN security. Together, according to In-Stat, these market segments are poised to reach $8.4 billion in revenue by 2008, compared with less than $1 billion this year.

At the infrastructure-level, many networking vendors have developed wireless networking products with embedded VPN capabilities that support major VPN clients. VPNs at the wireless device-level, however, seems to be the easiest way and most in demand to address securing mobile business users, at least for the moment, according to In-Stat.

Plenty of vendors, including Check Point Software, Redwood City, Calif. and Funk Software, Cambridge, Mass., are offering wireless VPN client security solutions. David Aminzade, wireless and broadband sales manager for Check Point, said Check Point's VPN-1 SecureClient is the company's biggest seller.

Aminzade said Check Point sells SecureClient, priced between $40 to $50 per client, in the thousands. Venuta said he's found SecureClient not only gives you the encryption ease of access but also includes a desktop firewall. "So it allows the user to protect themselves from themselves," said Venuta.

For instance, Venuta said one large retail customer with a variety of traveling executives and sales reps are using Check Point's SecureClient and are pleased with the product's performance. "They'll use it at Starbucks or another location with wireless service," said Venuta. "[SecureClient] allows them to traverse the Starbucks wireless network and Internet presence without too much risk in opening up their particular communication to the world."

Venuta said some financial services customers, such as banks are also using SecureClient to allow employees to work from their own desktops at home.

Funk Software, meanwhile, recently released its new Odyssey Client version 3.0, priced at $50 per machine. The new edition includes remote management and advanced preconfiguration tools to enable efficient, automated deployment across every wireless PC on the network.

David Rees, chief technology officer at The SMS Group, a Sidney, Ohio-based wireless integrator, said the ability to push a client out to a wireless device automatically when it first connects, along with being able to keep a sentry at the wireless door to a company's network, is a huge benefit.

Rees said improved security client products such as Odyssey's Client 3.0 should help solution providers make a stronger sales pitch to customers holding on to a no-wireless policy. "So it makes a stronger sale and %85 if it's that easy to manage the next thing,you know they are going to build out their wireless network," said Rees.