Wired versus wireless security: the Internet, WAP and iMode for E-commerce

The perceived lack of security in the wireless environment has delayed many initiatives in providing access to E-commerce applications from wireless devices. Many organizations are skeptical that the same kind of security protections that they are used to in the current Internet (wired) E-commerce environment are also available for wireless transactions. We show that these perceptions are misplaced. We describe the security properties and mechanisms available for Internet (wired), WAP based and iMode E-commerce. We find that both WAP and iMode provide excellent security features and are geared to provide other security provisions over and above those commonly available in a wired environment.