The New Wi-Fi Security Standard Jumps to 20% Use in 6 Months

SANTA CRUZ, CA, September 15, 2003 - Wi-fi Protected Access (WPA) has grown from nothing six months ago to the most-used security method for securing WLANs, according to Evans Data Corp.’s Fall Wireless Development Survey. WPA replaces the inadequate Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) technology, and is based on the 802.11i draft standard. WEP is still used by 14% of the survey respondents, compared to 20% for WPA.

"WEP was flawed from the start, because it was designed by electrical engineers and not cryptographers. Although adequate for home use, its inability to effectively secure enterprise-level wireless networks from intrusion makes it no surprise at all that WPA’s newer, more robust solution is finding much higher acceptance within the wireless development community," said Jeff Duntemann, Evans' wireless analyst. "The next survey should show even higher rates of WPA adoption."

Other findings from the August survey of more than 450 wireless developers worldwide:

• The biggest challenges to developing wireless applications are: working with a resource-constrained platform followed by rapidly changing standards, unfamiliarity with device programming and lack of good development tools.
• The most important advanced capabilities for wireless devices (respondents were asked to select as many as they wished) include: screen size and resolution, wireless network support, transaction security, support for color and messaging.
• Testing and debugging tools were the second most important tools for wireless development, but they are also the third worst tools in terms of developer satisfaction with them, ahead of wireless editors and performance tools.

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.

Copyright 2007 Evans Data Corporation. All other company names, products and services mentioned in this document are the trademarks and property of their respective owners.

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