RSA Security is building up to its European security conference
with product releases and a partnership with
PricewaterhouseCoopers, writes Eric Doyle.
The partnership is designed to raise awareness of the need for
security in e-business, based on a survey of 40 of the top 400 UK
businesses.
The Buying Online - Fad or Future report revealed that the Web
sites of one in seven of the companies have been hacked or closed
down by a computer virus attack and that a quarter of those
surveyed had no strategy policy to handle breaches of Internet
security. The survey concluded that fear of attack and the need to
tackle Internet fraud is raising awareness of the need for secure
e-business systems.
Tim Pickard, strategic marketing director at RSA, said, "The
results are not surprising. All too often security was viewed as a
technical, confusing issue only addressed by IT directors at a time
of crisis. This view is changing and security is finally becoming a
top issue for directors and board members."
Pickard feels that this is because security is no longer being seen
as purely an IT issue but as a strategic move to ensure competitive
advantage. This requires a broader approach from RSA, and the
company hopes that the partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers will
help to provide this through the co-development of products and
services.
Pickard said this will enable RSA's products to be seen in the
light of a complete e-business infrastructure.
Awareness of security requirements will be the focus of the RSA
Security Conference 2001, which will take place in Amsterdam on
15-18 October. Apart from general security issues, the key topics
will be advances in biometric solutions and how wireless networks
will affect the way we live and work.
At RSA's US conference earlier this year a series of seminars given
by ethical hackers and security experts attracted the biggest
audiences, and these will also be a feature of the Amsterdam
meeting.
RSA believes that, as with e-business, the uptake of wireless
technologies will be seriously held back because of the lack of
security. To help allay these fears, the company has released an
extension of its Bsafe encryption system for use in these
environments.
The Bsafe Wireless Core encryption software is based on systems
developed for cell phones, such as Symbian, Nokia, Matsushita and
Ericsson. The primary consideration in wireless environments is
that encryption should be executed as fast as possible. This has
necessitated fine-tuning through the use of optimised assembler
code for specific processors running operating systems from
Symbian, Palm and Microsoft.
RSA also produces an implementation of Compaq's Multiprime
encryption and signing technology. This underlines the need for any
wireless security system to be compatible with existing wired
networks.
One of the problems with Wap phones is that they are not directly
compatible with standard wired networks. This means encrypted data
has to be decrypted and re-encrypted through a gateway. This
renders the data vulnerable at the network's edge - an area
vulnerable to hackers. Taking away the need for this type of
gateway not only enhances security but also means that wireless
networks can be rolled out more rapidly than before.
Further Information:
www.rsasecurity.com/conference