"Management" and "mobility" were words on the tips of many attendees' tongues at the InfoSecurity 2003 Conference and Exhibition in New York, as leading security technology vendors displayed products for managing security devices, combating spam and securing mobile devices.

Frustration with difficulty managing security devices and security risks posed by mobile devices such as PDAs and cellular telephones is driving demand for new products and features bolstering traditional protections like firewalls and intrusion detection systems, according to interviews with those at the show.

A number of companies displayed technology for managing data produced by increasing numbers of security products deployed on corporate networks. Companies like Ubizen NV, OpenService, Consul Risk Management and Network Intelligence showed such products and services.

Securing mobile users was also a major concern of attendees and exhibitors. Heightened attention comes as corporations are equipping more employees with laptop computers, BlackBerry pagers and smart phones that give them constant access to network resources. Increasingly, those devices are serving as entry points for worms and viruses, said David Mortman, director of global security at Siebel, during a panel discussion Wednesday.

"Seventy percent of our workforce has laptops and is mobile, and laptops break the (network) perimeter," he said.

After a recent outbreak of the Blaster worm, Siebel was forced to protect its network from infection by stopping mobile workers as they came to work and requiring them to run a scanning program to detect copies of the worm on their laptops. Siebel stopped about 30 or 40 instances of Blaster from reaching the corporate network, Mortman said.

But companies are looking for more automated ways to deal with threats posed by mobile workers, according to Gerhard Eschelbeck of Qualys, who also participated in the panel discussion.

To meet those needs, companies are investing in new kinds of remote access technology. For example:

* Nokia used InfoSecurity to display Secure Access System, a VPN product based on Secure Sockets Layer that lets companies set up access policies that take into account the mobile user's identity, location and type of device used for network access, said Steve Schall, director of security application product management at Nokia.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

Whitepapers

• Selecting Effective Virtual Directories
• A Modern Approach to On-Demand Email and Data Security
• Best Practices for HP Servers and HP Enterprise Virtual Array in a Microsoft Exchange
• Compliance, Protection, Recovery: A Layered Approach to Laptop Security
• Endpoint Security: Data Protection for IT, Freedom for Laptop Users
• IT Departments on Data Security: A Research Concepts Survey

View more SECURITY whitepapers

Webcasts

• Key Considerations for a Successful 802.11n Deployment
• Solutions to the Toughest IT Challenges in Remote Offices
• Lowering the Cost of Email Archives
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies
• Technical Overview of Exchange Server 2007 with HP Servers and Storage
• Bringing Order and Security to your Mobile Workforce: Corporate Mobility Policy and Device Management On-Demand

View more SECURITY webcasts

Special Reports

• The Evolution of Network Security
• Taking Virtualization Up a Notch
• Learn how to Keep your Mobile Workforce Connected
• The self-managed network

View more SECURITY special reports