December 13, 1999

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Vendors Address Issue Of Security For Wireless Devices

By Brian Riggs and Beth Bacheldor

ompanies that want to share information with and provide online transactions to customers and business partners wirelessly all have one paramount concern: making sure those connections are secure. But the Wireless Application Protocol, the emerging technology used to send data to and from handheld devices, has no security mechanisms built into it, says Forrester Research analyst Charles Rutstein. To remedy this, the WAP Forum--which includes companies such as Palm Computing Inc. and Nokia Mobile Phones--has approved the Wireless Transport Layer Security standard, which vendors have just begun integrating into software.

This month, security software developer Diversinet Corp. plans to release a version of its Passport Certificate Server that uses WTLS to provide digital certificates for secure wireless transactions. Certicom Corp. and Entrust Technologies Inc. are also developing WTLS software that vendors of personal digital assistants, cell phones, servers, and middleware will use to establish secure wireless transactions. Hewlett-Packard's VeriFone division is integrating a WAP interface into its VeriSmart E-commerce software, while Sonera SmartTrust is working on a WAP-compliant telephone with built-in digital signature software that can secure online transactions.

Some companies are moving forward with their E-commerce projects by not requiring secure wireless transactions. Consumers who want to use the On The Go wireless service from Barnesandnoble.com's BN.com division to make purchases will not be able to transmit credit-card numbers over wireless connections. Anyone who wants to use the service has to be registered with BN.com, which means filling out a profile listing credit-card data using a secure, wired connection to the Web site. Users also won't be able to automatically log on to accounts over a wireless connection; they'll have to enter their user name and password.

But Christine DiPietro, Barnesandnoble.com's director of systems planning and development, expects the way transactions are conducted to change as wireless connections become more secure. "There will be security issues, but from a technology standpoint, those will be overcome."

return to main story, "The Internet Unplugged"

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