The Psychology Of Wireless Security

How much of a role does psychology play in adoption of new technologies? Now that the IEEE has formally ratified the 802.11i security standard, we're about to find out. While WLANs have been growing rapidly, particularly in the last year, many enterprises have been holding back from widespread deployment. One big reason: Uneasiness about WLAN security. Here's where the psychological aspect comes in. Most of the elements of 802.11i have been widely available in stable but pre-standard form for quite a while. That security is built into firmware, which will, in most cases, be easily upgradable to the "official" 802.11i standard. In other words, while effective wireless security has been available to enterprises for quite a while, most industry observers agree that the lack of formal standards has held back widespread deployment.

I agree. Ratified standards are always more comforting than even the most solid pre-standards. But more important, we're finally at a point where strong ROI cases can be made for widening WLAN deployments in many enterprises. As a result, the ratification of 802.11i serves as a cue that will remind IT managers, already snowed under with other projects, that it's now safe to move ahead with their WLAN plans.

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