PC Week takes
a close
and not exactly flattering look at security and
other issues in the Wireless Application Protocol.
In Hype aside, WAP has worries, PCWeek
explores gaps in the security infrastructure, deployment
delays,
potential incompatibilities with old devices, and
intellectual property conflicts.
Cell phones have longer manufacturing cycles (18 months)
than software, and many devices using the older Handheld
Device
markup Language (HDML) are still on the market, and will be
for at least another six months. These delays are also
affecting
security, because it will take a long time to deploy a
revised WAP spec that cleans up a gap between RSA-encoded
and
SSL-encoded transmissions inside data centers.
The intellectual property issues surrounding the GeoWorks
patent don't appear to be dissipating, either. A recent WAP
Forum
meeting seems to have been remarkable for the number of
lawyers in attendance.