The wireless debate: 3Com survey reveals security fears unfounded

Networking vendor 3Com recently surveyed 2500 companies in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore to shed light on some of the issues surrounding wireless technology. It revealed that wireless networks encounter little or no significant security risks.

“This survey debunks the commonly held belief that wireless networks are less secure than wired networks,” said Peter Chai, vice president and general manager – Asia Pacific, 3Com.

40 percent of respondents cited security as their most pressing concern followed by network reliability, which prompted 3Com to investigate whether the fears were founded. The results of the survey indicated that the threats faced by companies using a wireless network are not unique and do not vary greatly from those experienced by wired networks.

“What’s even more interesting is that some of these organisations did not face any security threats and have actually found that security of their networks have either improved or remained unchanged when they moved to wireless,” said Chai.

3Com indicated that the security and reliability concerns of businesses may be linked to the use of consumer-grade networking equipment that is less secure and has limited connectivity.

“In many cases, the use of centrally controlled wireless architecture may actually improve network security due to their ability to block rogue access points and enforce better network admission controls,” added Chai.

Other interesting findings of the survey include the revelation that Australia is one of the leading adopters of wireless technology in the region, with 20 percent of organisations deploying company-wide wireless networks. It also identified the education sector as the most fervent adopter of this technology, with 86 percent of respondents introducing full or partial wireless networks. Surprisingly, the financial sector rated poorly with 20 percent of organisations surveyed expressing no immediate plans to go wireless.

“The financial services industry has always been divided on the value of wireless networking. This is largely due to their reluctance to expose sensitive financial information over the air,” Chai noted.

To be expected, the report cited email, messaging and Internet access as the key motivators for wireless deployment. However, there is a growing number of organisations looking to utilise the technology for business applications such as salesforce automation, customer relationship, marketing and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

“There is clearly a need among early and new wireless adopters, especially manufacturers which constituted the largest number or respondents in the survey, to go beyond email and apply more innovative use of their existing wireless infrastructure,” said Chai.

According to the 3Com survey, a major stumbling block preventing organisations realising the full potential of wireless is a lack of knowledge in using the technology beyond basic applications. It was discovered that the majority of enterprises in the region are simply not up to date with current trends.

mobility wireless 3com