Security in the spotlight at CeBIT

Security will be a major focus this week at the giant CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. This year, the annual digital IT trade show will hone in on the multiple layers of security threats facing enterprise networks. Now it's not just data networks that are under attack; VoIP and even paper documents are at risk.

Eyeing the growing number of business users of handhelds, Secunet Security Networks, a Germany-based company with a roster of international enterprise customers, will show how a prototype of its Sina VPN software for PDAs and other mobile devices can secure VoIP traffic or remote connections to corporate servers. In addition, the Sina Virtual Workstation 2.0, a version of the software for PCs, will go on sale at the show. Secunet also will show BioMiddle, a middleware platform that allows buyers to mix and match components from different vendors securely to build a biometric identification system.

For small businesses and remote offices, Snom Technology is introducing a VoIP telephone, the snom 300, with a number of function keys for security options such as eavesdrop prevention.

Swiss software developer Nexthink will debut its K-One software, a distributed intrusion detection system for LANs, which uses artificial intelligence techniques to monitor network users' communications activity and signal unusual or suspicious events based on criteria such as confidence, severity, strangeness, and impact.

Meanwhile, SEH Computertechnik wants to secure printing. No holograms or watermarks here, though: just fiber-to-the-desk networking in an IPv6-enabled fiber-optic print server to prevent eavesdropping. The company will debut at the show the PS01, a print server with ThinPrint SSL encryption for sharing serial printers securely on Ethernet networks.

Major vendors will demonstrate security implementations in a variety of complex real-world scenarios. IBM will set up a border control kiosk to show off technologies including identity verification and fingerprint recognition. Siemens will be showing how to make different electronic identification systems interoperate. Both companies also will be demonstrating the use of RFID in the supply chain on the stand of Metro Group's Future Store Initiative.

Alongside the companies pushing RFID, the European Commission is sponsoring a conference at the show to address the privacy and security aspects of RFID technology.