reports

Boom in US computer security Although the US market for computer security products and services is ex- pected to exceed $2.8B this year, it still has a great deal of potential, according to a US survey. DP managers are not making sufficient use of back up, safety and encryption facilities. It appears that one of the reasons for this is that managers believe ' tapping' by their own employees is more of a problem than outsiders breaking through security.

The US government is increasingly concerned that technological inform- ation, process parameters and trade secrets are leaking to overseas com- petitors and enemy agents. The report states that several government at- tempts to encourage corporate data security have had little success. The commercial sector sees these as unrea- sonable demands for the protection of unclassified data.

In some cases, for example where fibres can be run between points in a network, fibre optic modems offer a secure data path. Tapping into the side of a fibre strand, if this is possible, would result in an obvious attenuation of the light signal. Satellite trans- missions, however, can be easily tapped so that high quality encryption is necessary here for data security.

Card-controlled access to computer rooms is already widely used in medium-sized and large corporations. The report indicates that the main area of growth in the next ten years will be for biometric systems such as fingerprints, blood vessel in the retinal wall, voice-print etc. At present there are high error rates with these systems and ergonomic problems e.g. people are not comfortable subjecting their eyes to an infrared scan. Sales revenues from biometric systems are projected to rise from around $8M this year to $320M by 1997.

Prevention of electronic access by capturing and decoding radio- frequency emissions is a market which has developed rapidly over the last three years. The US government has purchased Tempest equipment shielded to prevent emissions. IBM, Wang and Zenith/Inteq are doing well in this area.

Another segment of the computer security market is concerned with re- covery to the computer centre itself after a fire or other disaster. This involves having replacement com- puters and backup files at remote sites. Until now most disaster recovery ser- vices have focussed on mainframes but it is likely that recovery of PCs and PC-based files will become important in the next few years. (International Resource Development Inc., 6 Prowitt St, Norwalk, CT06855, USA) []

How to keep computers happy Computers need the right physical environment to function effectively and creating this environment has become an industry in itself. Products needed to provide this support for mainframe computers include: access control, firc protection and power- conditioning equipment. This equip- ment market amounted to $1.2B in the USA in 1985 and is predicted to grow by 14% annually to nearly $2.1B by 1990, according to a recent report.

One of the products to grow most rapidly is uninterrupted power sy- stems (20% annual growth for smaller systems) while sales of power dis- turbance monitors will show little change.

Some products which were origin- ally developed for the computer room environment e.g. raised access floors, for cables and piping, have now found a wider market in other 'computer- like' sites such as electronic switching centres or medical diagnostic labora- tories. (Frost & Sullivan Inc., 106 Fulton St, New York, N Y 10038, USA ) []

Increase in computers per desk

Computer users are currently ac- quainting themselves with hardware they have already purchased but in 1988 sales of computer terminals will increase significantly, according to a recent report. Although this recovery will not reach the historically high rates of the 1970s and early 1980s, sales are expected to more than double in the USA over the next five years ($25B a year by 1992).

After 1988 terminals will be appro- aching 'disposable commodity status' with about five people per terminal by 1990 (from 20 in 1984). More terminals are required for online transaction processing, distributed data process- ing and to replace 'dumb' units e.g. display units without processing power. Microcomputers will also be used as intelligent terminals by the early 1990s. The price per terminal will continue to fall but not as markedly as over the last four years. Annual sales in the USA in 1987 will exceed 4.3M units reaching 8.1M units by 1992.

The IBM 3270 family of terminals has over 25% of the current installed base in the USA. Manufacturing ac- counts for more than one third of the installed base and annual purchases. The number of intelligent and non- intelligent terminals in the factory is closer to parity than in transportation, distribution, banking and insurance where there are twice as many 'dumb' units as intelligent ones. IBM and DEC lead the major categories of terminals. Workstations are consid- dered to be the fastest growing cate- gory of terminal, according to the report. (Frost & Sullivan Inc., 106 Fulton St, New York, N Y 10038, USA ) []

vol 29 no 5 june 1987 273