Wireless Growing and Changing

A new survey hit the street this week pointing to the desire by corporations to rapidly adopt the emerging Wi-Fi 802.11n protocol, while two new mobile application stores are set to hit the market in the coming months. Lastly, a new flaw found on the Apple, Inc. iPhone can allow unauthorized parties to easily access locked devices.

Focal Points:

• The popularity of the 802.11n Wi-Fi specification is growing more rapidly than any preceding wired or wireless protocol, according to a new Web-based survey of 226 companies. Almost one third of those interviewed stated they were migrating to the new standard, which allows for speeds up to 248 megabits per second (Mbps). Part of the rapid acceptance can be correlated to high degree (39 percent) of institutions that have controller-based wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructures, and other 22 percent of those surveyed reported actively migrating or planning to migrate to the scalable environment. The report went on to state that 802.11n upgrades were coinciding with the notebook refresh cycles rather than upgrading already-deployed systems. Some enterprises believe 802.11n, particularly where new construction is concerned, could help eliminate the need for Ethernet deployment and maintenance costs when coupled with a high-capacity wired infrastructure.
• Both Microsoft Corp. and Google, Inc. are working on their own mobile application stores to compete with the mobile ecosystem made popular earlier this year by Apple App Store. Though Microsoft has not yet confirmed the forthcoming SkyMarket marketplace, job postings for the company seek senior product managers and product managers for a marketplace service for Windows Mobile. The launch of the new marketplace could potentially coincide with Windows Mobile 7, expected some time next year. Google has already confirmed the existence of its Google Android Market, which will initially feature free downloadable software for Android platform users. Google expects to ready the marketplace within several months, and will allow developers to gain analytics on their published content. Though Apple's App Store was only introduced along with the iPhone 3G back in June, over 60 million downloads have already been registered. Apple reports revenues of $30 million in one month's sales.
• A new exposure was discovered in the iPhone this week that allows unauthorized parties to bypass the device security and potentially expose private information including calendars, contacts, e-mails, and telephone numbers. Locked iPhones running software version 2.02 can be unlocked by pressing the emergency call button on the lock screen and then tapping the "Home" button twice. By default, that takes the user to the owner's private favorites page where data can be viewed and associated applications run. Apple has referred to the concern as a "minor security issue" despite the plethora of data exposed, and declared it will issue a software update some time in the month of September to fix the problem. The company hopes to sell 10 million devices worldwide by the end of the year.

Experton Group believes security concerns with the iPhone are to be somewhat expected given the new nature of device platform and Apple's relative inexperience with secure architectures. IT executives should expect Apple's security capabilities to improve over time; however, Apple's declaration of this oversight as minor does not bode well for them as a security-minded solutions purveyor. While the iPhone was this year's "must have gadget," Android-based devices will make a similar splash and be of great interest to many enterprise users. Many IT executives are reporting difficulty in controlling authorized devices given acquisitions made independently or using corporate expense accounts. New handheld platforms and devices are certainly going to cause a security and support nightmare for IT executives if a controlled environment for handheld device selection criteria is not tightly defined, agreed-upon, and adhered to by enterprise constituents. IT executives should expect evolving wireless technologies including 802.11n, High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), and WiMAX to require a re-architecture of enterprise networks to accommodate new access requirements. While broadband wireless technologies will rise dramatically for mobile and remote users, IT executives should continue to rely primarily on wired Ethernet technologies to maintain corporate security and manageability while wrinkles get ironed out.