White Paper
The Need to Demand More of Our Networks
What it means to be “connected” is changing as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution,1 which includes the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), a more data-driven economy, and more devices becoming “smart.” At the turn of the century, few imagined that we would be carrying portable computers with more processing power than the original lunar lander in our pockets. Yet, as we become more connected, the way in which we connect has not improved.
Our understanding of connectivity is based on networking standards developed when the Motorola® Razr was the hottest portable gadget money could buy. We connect to networks that are geographically restricted based on the propagation characteristics of Wi-Fi frequencies first standardized in 1999,2 the same year Apple® released the iBook® and Regis Philbin first asked, “Who wants to be a millionaire?” We have accepted a tradeoff between networks that are available to the public—but open and unsecured—and personal, secured networks that only function in our homes. It’s time to get rid of the trade-off. It’s time to imagine a world with constant and secure connectivity.
What’s Wrong with Connectivity?
Smartphone users seeking ubiquitous connectivity struggle with constant ambiguity, troubleshooting, and compromise. Let’s analyze what it means to be a mobile businesswoman seeking connectivity in the world we know today.
First, our user wakes up and checks her e-mail and social media accounts using her home network. After a few hours in the office, with her laptop connected to her corporate network and her personal phone on the corporate guest network, she departs for the airport, where she joins a new network that her phone warns is unsecured. After watching a brief advertisement to gain connectivity, responding to a few e-mails, and depositing a check using her bank’s mobile app, she boards her plane. If she is lucky, her plane offers another unsecure Wi-Fi network for a small fee during the flight. After her plane lands and a brief Uber® ride, she arrives at her hotel where the front desk agent greets her warmly and scribbles a barely legible Wi-Fi password on her room key sleeve. Tired from the day of travel, she retreats to her hotel room where she joins another unsecure Wi-Fi network, receives a redirect to a captive portal webpage where she enters the barely legible password, and joins the same unsecure network as every other visitor of the hotel.
The next morning, she decides to stop at a local coffee shop for breakfast, joining yet another network with the password scribbled on the chalkboard next to the list of muffins. She then begins her day of client visits and, as she sits down in each conference room at a new building she asks, “Which Wi-Fi network should I connect to?” She closes out her day at a co-working office with the local team, where she connects and activates her software-based VPN back to her corporate office. For each additional device she has, each of these steps is repeated at each location.
Why Can’t Connectivity Just be Connectivity?
At each new location where she chooses to connect, our user needs to perform a mental checklist: Which Wi-Fi network from the list available on her phone makes the most sense based on the location she is in? Is the coffee shop network “Guest Wi-Fi” or does that belong to the doctor’s office waiting room next door? Why does her phone say the network is unsecured? She just read a confidential work e-mail and deposited a check using her bank’s mobile app—how does she know her information is safe? She recently heard a friend who works in IT describe a device called a Pineapple,3 and he told her it allows something called an Evil Twin attack. The Pineapple will impersonate the wireless access point she wants to connect to, allowing a nefarious user to see all the information sent from her device without her having any idea of the attack. How does she know that the check deposit was performed on the actual airport network and not an Evil Twin network? Why does she have to accept unsecure networks in public places, just to have connectivity?
There must be a better way. Our user keeps hearing about the connectivity revolution and the Internet of Things, but she is starting to realize that the definition of connectivity is dependent upon the location. Why can’t connectivity just be connectivity? Why can’t her devices stay connected to the same secure Wi-Fi network everywhere she goes, without the need for new Wi-Fi passwords or unsecure networks at each location?