Interview with Darrell D. Simms, Director of Business and Wireless Product Development at TROY Wireless
Darrell D. Simms is an acknowledged leader in the wireless industry as a technologist. He is a noted evangelist for short distance wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and 802.11.
What’s the background behind Troy Wireless?
We are a company that has been in business for about 12 years. We are a bout $50 million in revenues. We make both wired and wireless network print servers. We research, design and manufacture products that utilize Ethernet, 802.11B, and Bluetooth technologies. We focus on parallel, USB, serial and Ethernet connectivity.
What qualities do you think are essential to be successful in the wireless market?
Money and patience and persistence. In these economic times when emerging technology dribbles out to the world instead of spurt out makes it hard to spend money when you are not making as much.
Despite the insecurities of 802.11, the number of wireless networks is growing rapidly. What should be done in order to raise awareness of wireless security problems?
Security is in the eye of the beholder. Customers will be come aware of the need for at the quantity and quality of security when they need it. Security companies have the same challenges as the technology companies themselves, they have to prove they are needed and valued.
Handheld devices are now owned by many people who use it for business purposes, which makes companies more susceptible to wireless security problems. In your opinion, what is a good approach in writing a wireless and handheld device usage policy for a corporate network?
The policy should be no different than the policy for wired networks. It should be well thought out for the end user and fully enforced by the establishment utilizing the appropriate tool and the amount of enforcement.
Wireless security is subject to interference and therefore to Denial of Service attacks. What can be done to protect from such attacks?
The implementers of security must understand the deployment and the tuning of a wireless network. If it is deployed and implemented in a well thought out manner by knowledgeable people, life for the end user will be a pleasant experience.
A significant part in the process of developing wireless networks is ensuring that the data on wireless devices is secure. What do you see as the biggest threats to that security?
The threat to security is if I have to worry about security. Users don’t care about security until something happens. It is like cell phone usage — we put up with a lot of drop calls and we call right back. We may fuss a bit but we hit redial and move on unless the redial feature is hard to use and or there are too many drop calls.
What is your vision for the future of wireless security?
It will be there when we need it and it will become like virus killers. I hope to never know it is there. I simply want it to work when it is needed.