re: Nokia (Checkpoint) and Ericsson (NetScreen) cover GPRS Security
>> Security Firms Try To Fill 'Frightening' Hole In GPRSs
Elizabeth Biddlecombe
Total Telecom
CeBIT 2002
14 March 2002
The second security product for GPRS networks to be launched in a month debuted at CeBit Wednesday.
NetScreen Technologies announced its firewall/VPN product for mobile carriers which will be sold by Ericsson as part of its GPRS solution.
While NetScreen has proven carrier-class security hardware for the fixed Internet, the NetScreen-500 GPRS is its first attempt to accommodate the special GPRS architecture or use the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP). Ericsson has been on hand to provide the mobile know-how - according to David Flynn, vice president of marketing at NetScreen, enabling NetScreen to "optimize the NetScreen-500 to meet the particular needs of mobile carriers."
Meanwhile Check Point Software Technologies and Nokia announced their first product for the wireless space – the software-based FireWall-1 GX – at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes in February.
Both camps are hoping to take advantage of the opportunity that wireless presents. "everybody in the mobile space is trying to figure out security," said Jeff Wilson, executive director at San Jose-based market research and consultancy firm Infonetics. He said that aside from measures in the handset itself, operators that have already launched GPRS have so far done "frightening little" to secure the network. "[Security] was an afterthought," he said.
Wilson tipped both offerings as being successful in the mobile space. "NetScreen has got a solid carrier class hardware platform that's big, fast and scalable," he said. "Nokia and Check Point now have faster hardware but Check Point's got the security reputation, Nokia, the connections in the mobile world. Between them [all] they will gobble up the opportunity there." <<
- Eric - |
