Security in wireless network: There's a perpetual tension in the challenge to fully implement wireless technology while not compromising the data on the client device or the rest of its home network.

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by Chris S. Thomas, Intel chief strategist, George Moakley, director of enterprise architecture, Regina Lynn Preciado, and Matt Gillespie.

Perpetual tension exists between new functionality and the security required to support it. This tension is manifest in the challenge to fully implement wireless technology while not compromising the data on the client device or the rest of its home network.

This article is the first installment of a two-part series in which Intel® Developer Services solicits opinions from two veterans in their respective roles at Intel to weigh in on topics of note. The other article in the series provides a similar treatment of the topic of manageability in wireless environments.

Intel Chief Strategist Chris S. Thomas is considered one of Intel's visionaries, charting future directions for industry and computing. George Moakley is director of enterprise architecture at Intel and is the lead architect for Intel’s e-Business Solutions Lab. Their different business roles shape and inform their discussions, which together form a whole that is more than the sum of its considerable parts.

Chris S. Thomas on reversing the philosophy of security
The first part of this article presents the strategic and philosophical point of view held by Chris S. Thomas toward addressing the security challenges presented by widespread deployment of wireless technology.

As Thomas has intimated in his previous columns, a huge change in how we do business and how we architect is upon us. Emerging business models based on what George Moakley calls "active mobility"—the ability to stay connected while moving from hotspot to hotspot and protocol to protocol—are inspiring us to re-think the way we conceptualize and realize security.

Thomas sees three major shifts happening:

• Moving to a "security provider" model
• Segmentation replacing end-to-end security
• An architectural, rather than technological, approach to security

Home base: security as a service
We are moving toward a sign-on philosophy in which users sign on to one location—a security provider—through which they connect to everything else. This connection might become a permanent VPN or fixed-line connection between user and service provider. For example, if AT&T is my security provider, and I need to connect to Intel, I would sign on to my AT&T account. From there, AT&T would connect to the corporate LAN. That connection would always be the same. I always return to my "home base" (AT&T) to get to my communication path.



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