As mobile commerce and wireless Internet access grow, security concerns about protecting data on wireless devices becomes an issue for businesses and consumers.

Internet users in the United States are increasingly relying on cell phones to access data. In a June survey, consulting firm Cap Gemini America Ernst & Young said 78% of wireless Internet subscribers will use cell phones for wireless-data applications by the end of this year, compared with 3% in 2000.

The process of developing secure wireless networks is similar to the process of securing Internet transactions, but according to an executive research report by the Yankee Group, wireless security solutions must consider bandwidth and memory limitations, battery life, and different network configurations, which aren't inherent to the Internet. Most wireless applications are embedded with Wireless Application Protocol or public-key infrastructure technology, which authenticates users. Other means of securing wireless data use passwords or encryption to protect the transfer of information through airwaves.

U.S. makers of wireless applications are slow to adopt some high-end security features that are being widely used in Europe and Japan, says Lisa Pretty, executive director of the PKI Forum. There are some WAP-enabled phones being deployed in the United States, Pretty said, but phones that support PKI aren't scheduled to be available in U.S. markets until the middle of this year.

Wireless viruses and subscription fraud are some of the wireless security threats that could become barriers to mobile commerce as consumers grow wary of using mobile devices to conduct transactions, the report notes.