Network Security

Whether you are among the folks who think the telecom industry has responded energetically to the post-9/11 call for greater network security, or those who feel that the requisite navel-gazing since the tragedy has amounted to nothing, there are two critical issues to follow in the security arena next year.

The first is the telecom industry's anticipated reaction to the passage of President Bush's Homeland Security Act. While the new law wound through various legislative meanderings the last several months, some in the industry began to look at it as a revenue driver for the still-depressed sector since it called for, among other things, construction of an emergency first-responder network and a disaster recovery coordination center manned by federal government employees and telecom experts.

Flarion Technologies and Northrup Grumman I.T., the chief vendors behind the first-responders prototype network, already have said that the act's passage clears the way for them to proceed into commercial aspects of the project, including partnerships with several public network operators.

Meanwhile, as of this writing, representatives from several carriers and vendors were set to meet before the National Reliability and Interoperability Council to discuss new policies and processes for physical network, cyberspace and corporate enterprise security. The agency's Physical Security focus group is set to issue a report by Dec. 31, identifying areas requiring attention and, presumably, an investment commitment from the nation's network operators.

Still, it remains to be seen exactly how much new technology deployment and investment will be created as the telecom industry looks to support the new Department of Homeland Defense and its new security agenda.

The industry's second key security issue for the next year is more technical. Many have lambasted the Wi-Fi wireless LAN standard for a weak security protocol, even as adoption of the technology has surged and become too prominent for carriers to ignore. As 2002 ends, carriers such as Verizon Communications and AT&T Wireless are revealing plans to invest heavily in Wi-Fi innovations over the next year (see story on page 30), increasing pressure on several parties at the center of the Wi-Fi security issue — namely the IEEE working group developing new generations of the Wi-Fi standard and the vendors seeking more homegrown encryption and authentication solutions. Work in both corners is likely to come to fruition during 2003.

The commercial impact of the Homeland Security Act on telecom and the gate-opening effect that better Wi-Fi safeguards could have on carrier investment into one of this year's biggest technology success stories both provide hope that all of the past year's talk about security wasn't just paying lip service to a passing fad.