Security issues dog hotspots

Senior executives and other people wanting to use public wireless hotspots still cite security as their main concern

Worries about the security of wireless LANs are still the main reason why people are unlikely to use public hotspots, according to research commissioned by Bailey Telecom and conducted by research firm IDC.

When asked how likely they were to use a public wireless hotspot, 16 percent said they were unlikely to do so and 54 percent said they were very unlikely to do so. The respondents cited security concerns as the main reason for their reluctance.

Graham Iliff, marketing and technology director at Bailey Telecom, argued, "Everyone recognises the usefulness of wireless, especially in the current market of remote and home workers, but these findings show that only business people who are comfortable with this kind of technology are currently benefiting. Hotspot providers must provide more education on how to use these facilities, and more attention must be paid to security before we will see everyday people logging on wirelessly."

Respondents said that they were far more likely to use hotspots in an airport or railway station than in a coffee shop or fast food restaurant. The people who said they would use hotspots in fast food restaurants were those who were most comfortable with the technology and would use it in a number of places - in contrast to the 10 percent who would use hotspots in an airport but nowhere else.

A number of industry experts predict wireless LAN technology will take off once a "killer application" is available, in the same way that mobile phones became more popular when Short Message Service (SMS) was introduced.

However, Bailey Telecom believes the only thing holding back wireless technology is the widely held misconception that it is inherently insecure.

Iliff said, "The fact is that we now have technology, such as 'air monitors', that can keep a wireless network and all users genuinely secure because it monitors all activity and flags up irregularities. The majority of network-invasion horror stories are caused by the fact that people have not properly implemented the security features or users have not been adequately briefed on security protocols."

Iliff added, "Wireless has now moved from an innovative but risky 'plug-in' system towards being a manageable, soon-to-be-mature technology."

The survey found different attitudes to remote working in the public and private sectors, with one-fifth of public sector employees working remotely for part of every day, in contrast to four percent in the private sector. However, most respondents said they worked remotely very rarely; and many employees, particularly in the private sector, said they felt uncomfortable about attempting to work from home.

When IT decision makers were asked which technologies had most improved productivity, they cited PCs and laptops combined with broadband access. Other staff agreed this combination had helped them the most because it gave them the option of working from different locations and saved time and money.

However, when asked how their employers measured staff productivity, more than half of respondents said there were no formal systems in place. Only a fifth had an in-house system with agreed quantifiable staff targets and deadlines.

For the survey, IDC questioned 100 IT decision makers and 100 other staff across multiple industries, and the sample group was balanced between the public and private sectors in the UK.

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