With electronic espionage and other forms of
malicious hacking rising even as the amount of sensitive data sent
over wired and wireless networks increases, U.S. government and
military agencies are driving increased spending on security,
according to a new Frost
& Sullivan report. Chief among the military's interests,
according to the report's author, is wireless encryption.
"For years now Motorola has had radios encrypted that can carry
anything classified from 'secret' up to 'top secret,' so you've been
able to carry on a classified conversation for years," senior
analyst Brooks Lieske told Wireless NewsFactor. "But that's in
radio, and it's easily jammed by an enemy. Mostly for ease of use,
end-users in the military want encryption for networking."
Frost & Sullivan found that military encryption concerns
generated US$176 million in 2000. The consultancy projects that
total will clear $457 million by 2007.
"The big cry," said Lieske, "has been for embedded encryption or
some small add-on device that provides encryption."
War and Peace
A military has to be mobile, and as wireless technology takes
hold, so do added security concerns.
"In peacetime, say you're some lieutenant colonel and you're
off-base at a commercial airport and working on your laptop, which
is classified at the secret level," Lieske hypothesized. "If you
want to send something, you can't do it, because to plug into public
lines, you need stronger encryption. Your computer's good enough to
keep classified information on because it's protected by the person
carrying it, but it's not able to send securely."
Security needs are even more daunting during wartime or on active
overseas duty, he said.
"Say you're a fighter wing at a base in a foreign country where
communications networks might not be fully secure," Lieske
suggested. "Wouldn't it be nice to only depend on U.S. equipment,
electrical sources, encryption and satellites? That's exactly what
military end-users want."
Trusting Your
Friends
The military isn't the only organization that needs high-level
security, the report noted. Defense contractors working with
sensitive military information also must be well protected in the
wireless age.
"Not only must contractors protect sensitive information from
global espionage, but corporate espionage has also become a
concern," Lieske said.
Leiske said the likeliest solution will be hardware: "Embedded
device with chips with algorithms that National Security Agency
requires."
As companies create and adopt high-level encryption, the military
impetus will benefit a large part of the commercial sector. In fact,
it already has, Lieske said.
"I think the commercial sector is already benefiting. Commercial
customers don't need as strong encryption as the military, but they
do want encryption and wireless," he said.
Often the commercial world moves faster than the military, taking
encryption and deploying it faster because the security needs are
less stringent. It will be a while before the military has what it
wants in terms of wireless security, but eventually it will make
mobile options the primary means of communication.
"Five, 10, 15 years from now, we'll deploy wireless operations
bases," Lieske said. "Anytime a unit is dispatched overseas,
communications will be wireless. There may be a secure landline as a
redundant backup, but wireless will be 80 to 90 percent of the
solution." 
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July 26, 2001 
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