A major priority for businesses today is wireless networking. Over the last decade, the explosion of mobile devices has driven many organizations to deploy systems that can optimize tablets and smartphones while keeping data secure. It has caused many organizations to start investing more in wireless networking.
Full service research and consulting company MarketsandMarkets released a forecast called "Wireless Network Security Market by Solutions and Services – Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2014-2019)." The report examined multiple verticals including finance, government, telecommunication, manufacturing and retail to see how companies are investing.
According to the numbers, the current wireless network security market stands at $8.47 billion. Over the next five years, a compound annual growth rate of 12.94 percent will see spending increase to $15.55 billion by 2019. This money will be spent on a number of different systems and services including:
- Firewall
- Intrusion prevention/detection system (IPS/IDS)
- Encryption
- Identity and access management (I&AM)
- Unified threat management (UTM)
- Security operations
- Consulting services
- Managed security services (MSS).
There are several reasons why this will happen. The first is the growth adoption of mobile devices. Tablets and smartphones have evolved to the point that they can handle a multitude of operations. On top of that, the cost and high-data transfer capabilities and BYOD strategies are all improved with a strong wireless network in place.
Security is also heightened because cyber criminals have also evolved with the times. They are using more advanced and sophisticated tools to infiltrate enterprise networks. This is why the right solution is needed to keep company data safe.
Is open wireless the trend of the future?
While it seems like wireless security is something that every organization needs to focus on, there are some groups that are actually looking to go in the other direction. A recent article from Computerworld covered the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which will be presenting at the Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE X) convention in July.
The group spearheads the Open Wireless Movement that is looking to create a widely used free wireless network. The reason for this is that it believes running open Wi-Fi is not a security risk if your network has the right firmware in place which can portion off the bandwidth while also providing a high degree of security and privacy.
"[IT] creates a public slice of bandwidth that can dialed up or down with a simple smartphone interface." EFF staff attorney Nate Cardozo told the news source. "If everyone runs open Wi-Fi, there's no real argument that anyone is being negligent by doing so. If you're not the person doing the illegal activity, you have no liability."
The problem with this is that everyone would need to be on board and the security risks are still too great. As it currently stands, if something illegal were done by someone using that open network, the owner is liable.
While the idea of free, open wireless sounds like something that every consumer would be for, it does not make practical sense. The spending on wireless security shows an open wireless will have little impact on the corporate landscape. Organizations need to improve overall operations and one of the top ways of doing this is through the use of mobile devices and a strong wireless network.
