Wireless LAN security falls short of expectations, says META Group

Wireless LAN vendors have failed to deliver interoperable, highly secure wireless LANs, according to META Group. Three years after initial concerns about wireless LAN security, achieving a highly secure enterprise wireless LAN remains a challenge. Vendors have succeeded only in confusing the market by offering solutions that are complex, costly to implement, and often cumbersome to support.

Despite the continued growth of the consumer wireless LAN market, total revenues from enterprise wireless LAN sales have recently declined. Enterprises have resisted adopting wireless LANs due to the immaturity of security and management standards.

"Although new standards are emerging, the complexity is still too great, forcing companies to postpone wireless LAN deployment," said Les Stevens, practice leader: risk and security, META Group South Africa, who will present `Managing Information Risk and Security` in August.

"Despite all the vendor marketing hype, standards remain immature and vendors continue to push their individual agendas."

Enterprises must be aware of the complexity that remains in securing wireless LANs. Organisations will be forced to select a wireless system from a single vendor or take a VPN security approach until standards stabilise in 2005. By 2006, the integration of wireless features into the wired infrastructure will ease operational complexities and enable wireless LANs to be treated as just another network-access medium.