Wireless security gets a jumpstart

"We never gave security a thought," Brian Chee says, talking about what was probably the world's first wireless data network. Chee worked on Aloha Net, a new concept in communications developed by the University of Hawaii back in the late 60's. This network, using a form of magic called "carrier sense multiple access," let the university link computers on each of the state's islands. Later, the technology would migrate to the wired world, and with some improvements, would be known by the name "Ethernet."

The data carried by Aloha Net eventually went to undersea cables and microwaves, Chee went on to run the university's prestigious Advanced Network Computing Laboratory, and wireless networking went on to ignore security. In fact, wireless networking ignored security for so long that most people think it still doesn't have any. In many cases, they're right. But it doesn't need to be that way.

Now that wireless communications is becoming a critical technology for the enterprise, it can't be that way. The problem is that the disconnect between the IT staff's memories of wireless networking and today's reality is sufficiently large--a factor that keeps the technology from growing as fast as it should.

Fortunately, the advent of VPN technology is changing all that, just as it's changing the security environment for remote users. Still, wireless networking needs more than just a VPN to make things really secure. For one thing, most wireless access points are basically wide open. I was visiting Chee in his lab recently when we decided to see just how secure a few 802.11b installations in the area were. The short answer is not very. We could easily access company networks from public parking lots nearby.

Fortunately, there are also solutions to wireless security that close the various access holes while making wireless security work better. One of the best of these comes from NetMotion Wireless in Seattle. "Once you get real users on it, security becomes more important, because wireless is more important," explains NetMotion CEO and President Craig McKibben. "These are more than just 'gee whiz' projects," he says.

In effect, NetMotion's Mobility product becomes the perfect partner for wireless networking. Not only does it provide the VPN services that wireless users need, but it also can force users to authenticate before they can connect to the network. Even better, NetMotion Mobility provides a unique feature that alone may sell it to many companies: the ability to roam throughout a corporate network without the IT staff having to reconfigure the network. Additionally, the product allows roaming worldwide through any medium that will pass TCP/IP packets, whether it's GSM, CDPD or (no kidding) actual copper wires. Mobility will even let you maintain your connection through dead spots or while you change from 802.11b, for example, to CDPD.

Without NetMotion's Mobility, the use of wireless networking is both risky and less convenient than it should be. The built-in security delivered with most units is weak, and the ability to roam is non-existent without massive changes to network configurations. With this product, using your wireless network is as secure as one that's wired, and a whole lot more convenient.

Wireless networking has become good enough to be useful, and secure enough to be safe. That's a combination that provides just the jumpstart this technology needs.