IBM launches wireless security software, services

By Caroline Humer

NEW YORK: International Business Machines Corp. is due to launch on Monday

new services and software aimed at making wireless networks and communications

more secure and widely used, the company said on Sunday.

IBM, based in Armonk, New York, said it put together a broad-based offering

by its services division, Global Services, that helps companies assess, plan and

implement ways to make their wireless applications and transactions more secure.

IBM also said it will launch a new version of its risk management software,

Tivoli Risk Manager, that includes the ability for a corporation to manage its

wireless risks the same way it manages its firewalls, servers, and other

security exposures.

IBM said it was already selling ThinkPad notebooks and NetVista desktop

computers that include a security chip that can prevent outsiders from hacking

into the machine through a wireless network. John Kirby, IBM's general manager

of wireless e-business services, said some customers who have piloted wireless

applications have not had security properly installed.

Wireless networks are used by corporations similarly to cable-based local

area networks. Consumers can use wireless networks to enable their home

computers to communicate with other computers in their house. And some companies

use wireless applications to transfer information from their databases to

employees in the field, IBM said.

Security an issue in the home, office

Framingham, Massachusetts-based research house IDC says wireless security has

become an issue as consumers and corporations adapt to new technology.

"Over the past couple of years (security) has increasingly become an issue

with the implementation of wireless LANs into corporate networks," said

Allan Carey, an analyst at IDC. Carey said it was also a problem in the home.

IBM agreed, pointing to some of the security breaches that have made headlines.

"We've seen stories of people driving around California, in Berkeley,

and being able to get into people's wireless LANs. There are people in Europe

concerned about doing wireless payments," Kirby explained. "And in

general, that's not different from having the Internet seven or eight years ago,

and having no security on it, and saying, 'Well, people can break into

it,'" Kirby said.

Other companies that make wireless security software include Internet

Security Systems Inc. , Electronic Data Systems Corp. and privately held atStake

Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, IDC's Carey said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.