Security's next steps

Next-generation security technologies push the envelope to address evolving threats

Microsoft will build future versions of ISA server to manage threats beyond the network edge, enabling SOAP and XML filtering as well as .Net Framework integration. The goal is to address the next stage of application security, such as Web services, and existing customer pains -- such as directory traversal over the firewall and DMZ, IM issues, and SQL server attacks.

Encryption's quantum leap

While firewalls beef up, cryptography will get a quick lesson in physics. Quantum cryptography, which uses principles of quantum physics to encrypt data and track attempts to steal it, is one next-generation security technology attracting more attention.

MagiQ Technologies' quantum-key distribution hardware box, Navajo, pushes this technology toward business use. Designed to flip randomly generated digital keys once a second to keep prying eyes away from data traveling over fiber-optic lines, Navajo allows users to implement any encryption method to guarantee a message has been securely delivered between two parties -- and that no copy exists.

Based on the laws of quantum mechanics, the technology works on a series of triggers: Once someone reads quantum-encrypted information, the data is altered on a molecular level. After a correction procedure is conducted by the sender and receiver, the high error rate found in comparing the original and received messages will produce eavesdropper evidence and outline the form of attack used to steal the information, explains Bob Gelfond, CEO and founder of New York-based MagiQ.

"Quantum cryptography does not use mathematical complexity; it relies on laws of physics to guarantee its success," Gelfond says. "You can't clone or copy a photon in any way and don't have to worry about a message being compromised."

Despite its benefits, quantum coding faces obstacles. In the case of Navajo, which will be available later this year, the box can only extend its coverage over a 30-kilometer radius between two specific devices. Gelfond expects a range of 100 kilometers to be reachable in over a year's time.

Further impeding its progress, the strong encryption technology's elegance may not be applicable to most enterprises outside the U.S. government, says Ray Wagner, research director of information security strategies at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner.

"The main problem with quantum-key distribution is the current method for key distribution is good enough for most enterprises," Wagner says. "There's not a lot of organizations that can afford to put in private fiber optic, then protect that private optic."

MagiQ's Gelfond disagrees, countering that the existing glut of laid fiber allows Navajo to become even easier and less costly to use. The proliferation of quantum repeater devices is expected to boost quantum signals much the same way optical boosters are needed for long-haul networks.

Sonar at your fingertips

Boosting the abilities of biometrics to attract enterprise interest is also in the works. To improve conditions and accuracy for biometric fingerprint scanning, the use of high-frequency sound waves is surfacing as one option to eliminate surface-contamination variables, which could impair scanned-image processing.