Speakers at the Networkers conference discussed credit card security, video surveillance and how much money telework is saving them

Wireless networks have caused security concerns for some time, but executives from Cisco Systems Inc. say when used properly they can actually improve security.

At its Networkers Conference last week in Toronto, Cisco officials said combining wireless and video on the same network can help companies relying on surveillance equipment.

Sean Ginevan, Cisco Canada's marketing manager for mobility solutions, said the San Jose, Calif.-based network equipment manufacturer is working on a "proof of concept" whereby someone on a university campus, for example, could call for help using a mobile device over the campus wireless network.

"Say a girl on campus felt unsafe and she wanted to go and get somebody dispatched to her. She could use that application to go through and register her location within the network," Gineven said. He added the information on the person's mobile device could be sent to a surveillance application and in turn tell the camera operator to point the camera at the person, and if necessary alert a security guard.

Ginevan made his remarks to an audience of 30 at a session titled "Enabling Mobile Service Through Cisco Motion," at Networkers, held at the Toronto Congress Centre.

About 2,000 Cisco employees, vendors and IT managers attended the conference and hundreds more participated using video feeds from 10 other locations in Canada, a Cisco spokesperson said.

During the keynote session, company officials in Winnipeg demonstrated a video surveillance scenario through a Telepresence feed. In the demonstration, a security officer hears gunfire and zooms a remote-controlled surveillance camera on to a suspicious person. The feed from the surveillance camera was then connected to an IP phone and a patroller's wireless device.

Concerns over wireless security attracted at least one IT manager to Networkers. Aaron Lindemann, systems analyst at Lutherwood, a Waterloo, Ont.-based non-profit social services agency, said his organization uses wireless access points -- primarily 802.11g -- for staff and visitors.

"Security is top priority for us," he said, adding that's the main reason he attended a Networkers session on design guidelines for high performance, secure wireless.

Wireless security is also important for any company that processes, stores or transmits credit card information, said Terri Quinn, leader of Cisco's compliance solutions marketing team, at a session on Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance.

She noted the PCI Data Security Standard requires any companies operating wireless networks protected only by Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), within the scope of PCI, to decommission their WEP networks by June 30, 2010.

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