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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: qdog who wrote (807)	10/29/1999 6:11:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 12231

Click here for GTE DSL Wholesale Solutions. From the October 25, 1999, issue of Wireless Week Wireless E-biz Insecurities By Brad Smith In Europe, some wireless carriers are experimenting with an Internet child called "e-cash" that loads into a handset. In California last week, the state authorized the use of digital signatures that citizens can use in legal transactions. Several banks throughout Europe and North America are starting to allow wireless access to personal account information. These applications will open up a new era in e-commerce, with wireless certainly playing a role. But questions about security remain. In the first instance, consumers will be able to download "e-cash" from their bank to their handset and then use the handset or something attached to it to make purchases. But what happens if someone steals your handset and starts transferring large sums out of your bank account? These security questions have been raised for several years in relationship to Internet e-commerce. As wireless e-commerce begins to emerge, the same questions are being asked. Wireless has a different spin, though. In the Internet world, security has been answered in a couple of ways and those don't necessarily apply to wireless e-commerce. The first level of Internet security is provided by the Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers, which can't be used on a wireless device because of their memory requirements. The next level is provided by the e-commerce sites themselves, such as Amazon.com's additional security software, which has some validity in wireless. "The problems that wireless has [with e-commerce security] are with memory in the devices and bandwidth in the network," says Alan Reiter, a wireless e-commerce consultant and president of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing. Wireless, especially digital networks, offer some inherent security in the transmission process. GSM networks also have security built-in with their subscriber identity module cards. Neither attacks the specific e-commerce security needs, however. One of the principal technologies that will be used in the early years of wireless e-commerce will be handsets using the Wireless Application Protocol microbrowser. The first release of that standard doesn't have security built-in, but the WAP Forum has a special committee working on that issue for a coming release. When Palm Computing Co. came out with its wireless Palm VII device this year it used security software from Certicom Corp., which provides data encryption technology. Other leading providers in the area include Diversinet Corp. of Toronto, Baltimore Technologies Inc. and VeriSign Inc. Diversinet, which provides "digital certificates" and "digital permits" for e-commerce transactions, is working with Research In Motion Ltd. and its BlackBerry paging service. There's even a new global initiative called Radicchio, formed to define a standard security platform for mobile e-commerce. Radicchio was launched just weeks ago by Sonera SmartTrust, a unit of Finland's Sonera Ltd., smart card manufacturer Gemplus Inc., Ericsson and data leader Electronic Data Systems Inc. Radicchio is promoting the use of a Sonera technology built around "Public Key Infrastructure," which uses 1024-bit asymmetric encryption. A Sonera official says the advent of wireless e-commerce is going to open a global market worth $66 billion within the next four years. Prakash Panjwani, wireless market director for Certicom, says the next step will be to design security for devices that could be stolen or used by unapproved parties. This might be done through internal software that requires passwords, with a smart card component that would lock the device when it was removed, or even with a radio interface that would communicate between the device and the authorized user. If that problem is solved, wireless e-commerce will have a lock on security.