Security on the rise

Rapid profileration of affordable bandwidth throughout the home and businesses coupled with the surging ranks of online crooks and vandals has created a global security headache that was unforeseeable even two years ago. These days, for instance, it’s assumed that an unprotected computer has only a few minutes alone on the internet before being visited by something or someone with less than good intentions.

And while large organisations are spending more and more to protect themselves, the lower tiers of the business world are still trying to understand what the threats actually are, let alone develop proper strategies to counter them. For the Australian channel, these factors have created enormous opportunities to develop more services-oriented business models for valuable new annuity streams.

According to Wendy O’Keefe, managing director of LAN Systems, the security market presents massive opportunities for growth, provided suppliers know how to handle it properly."We’re in security because it’s a growth environment -- 50 percent of CIOs say that they’re spending money on security."

She adds, however, that unlike most other sectors of the industry, security is all about interdependence between different partners and different technologies and that striking the right balance here is the key differentiator of success. "It’s like imagining all the skittles in bowling -- you need to have all 10 in place before you start," O’Keefe says.

RSA Security, long viewed as a leader in identification and authentication, sees security as being as much about improving productivity as anything else.

RSA Australian channel manager Chris Wood says the veritable explosion in passwords and user names that individuals and their employers now need to manage presents great opportunities for companies to develop a broader understanding of their clients’ needs beyond just telling them what they need to fear. "Single-sign on, for instance, is purely a productivity tool and an example of security as an enabler, rather than being -- as most people tend to think -- another bolt on the door and another key that they have to carry," he says.

A major area of concern, especially within the corporate market, Wood adds, is the development of more sophisticated authentication systems.

"Companies need new layers whereby people’s identities are actually verified rather than merely recognising a registered entity," he says, adding:"There’s no point in having all these checks and balances if you have weak authentication."

LAN's O'Keefe: Security about interdependence between partners and technologies

David Stevens, managing director of Sydneybased reseller and ISP SecureTel, believes that one of the biggest misnomers about security in the channel is that the supposed kudos attached to any particular vendor or product will actually translate into business. "One of the great myths that exist in the channel is that you can create trust in some sort of magical fashion when really it’s about doing a great job and developing strong relationships.

"I don’t think hanging your shingle on the door [which says] 'Buy a secure connection here' is going to cut it."

This fact, he says, has created a fair degree of tension between vendors and suppliers in this highly competitive space.

"You get the trust relationship by selling the client what it wants, not what the vendor wants," Stevens adds. "But vendors don’t really want this because it takes the focus off the technology."

SecureTel started out as an ISP and also acts as a reseller for services like PBA’s (Personal Broadband Australia’s) iBurst.

On the security side, the company offers a wide range of technologies that form part of an overarching managed service, configured so as to appear transparent to the user. "We’ve made security like a utility: it’s a plug in the wall," Stevens says.

SecureTel hopes to see big opportunities with the growth of wireless communications in Australia, especially in non-proprietary, therefore riskier areas such as Wi-Fi.

According to Scott Frew, director of Firewall Systems, the channel has an opportunity to take a second bite of the security cherry in Australia, having learned that the business does not need to be as complicated, or more importantly capital intensive, as once thought.

"Resellers that were security experts have gone by the wayside over the past five years," he says."They failed because they built these huge operations centres but weren’t able to get a return on their investment."

Also, the fact that smaller businesses are increasingly exposed to the same threats as larger organisations has created new opportunities for channel companies to develop clever solutions that are not prohibitively expensive to buy or deliver.

RSA's Wood: Develop a broader understanding of client's needs

"History shows that companies have been just dropping firewalls in then walking away, when it is known that vulnerabilities can appear literally in minutes," Frew says.

"What we’re trying to say is build services and products that protect the network against things that haven’t been invented yet."

Chris Howells, founder of Australian modem company NetComm and now director of network access and security newcomer NetLeverage, agrees that there are huge opportunities in the small to medium business segment, especially given the rapid migration to broadband services like ADSL.

"You’ve got the situation whereby larger companies can afford to pay top dollar for top IT experts while the smaller companies can’t afford them and their directors don’t want to get involved," Howells says.

"This is despite the fact that the same people trying to break into Westpac are the same people trying to break into their networks."