5th CACR Information Security Workshop

Speaker
Sharon Hagi, 724 Solutions Inc.

Title
Wireless Security and the Evolution Towards PKI

Abstract
In the early 90s, the emergence of personal mobile computing devices signaled the beginning of the wireless networking age. Today, the proliferation of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Digital Cellular Phones, 2-Way Pagers, Internet appliances and such, are providing easy and practical Internet access to customers, anytime, anywhere.

Enterprises are now facing new challenges in deploying secure and robust information services that are accessible from a wide range of wireless and mobile computing devices. Wireless security and PKI introduce yet another dimension to the complexity already inherited by the diversity and variety of different device characteristics, computing power, operating systems, bandwidth limitations, communication protocols and deployment models.

This presentation will attempt to explore some the many challenges in building comprehensive and secure wireless information systems and give compelling reasons for an evolution towards wireless PKI. Practical examples will be drawn from 724's experience in this field as one of the pioneering companies in providing wireless financial and e-commerce services.

Speaker Bio
Mr. Sharon Hagi joined 724 Solutions Inc. in 1999 as a Senior Software Architect for the Security Group. In this role, he is responsible for specification and design of security solutions for various devices and channels serviced by 724's Financial Services Platform as well as the adaptation and implementation of new and advanced security technologies.

Mr. Hagi has a solid background in the telecommunications and software industries. From 1995 to 1999, he held various positions in companies such as The Royal Bank of Canada, Motorola Inc., Secure Computing Corp. and Algorithmics Inc., working on a multitude of projects including secure Internet and telephone banking applications, high speed switch engineering and design for Frame Relay and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) WAN telecom equipment, Firewall product development, software development for various financial risk management applications and large scale simulation engines.

Mr. Hagi holds an Hon. B.Sc. in Computer Science and Physics from the University of Toronto.