Speed and firewalls panned at network security shindig

Andre Gold, VP of information security at Continental Airlines made the remarks during a computer security and networks conference in Capri, Italy.

"It's not helping," Gold said. "One gigabit in my LAN is only going to help the viruses spread. Bandwidth isn't always the problem."

Gold was speaking on a panel of experts debating advances in network technology. Gold was at the event promoting a new technology that continuously scans LAN traffic pushed-out by start up company ConSentry networks.

The company argued that security is increasingly entering business decision making, especially in a post-Slammer world.

"Slammer can't happen again," said Jeff Prince, chairman and CTO at ConSentry. "But in order to make security pervasive it has to be on every port."

At the same event a TippingPoint VP predicted a swift end to firewalls. Gregory Fitzgerald, the IPS company's VP of marketing argued that the technology would soon be overhauled.

"Who cares if companies are pushing out firewalls now?" said Fitzgerald. "With more and more technology requiring open ports [such as VoIP] security has to be elsewhere to ensure the networks remain safe."