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Deloitte’s technology predictions for 2007

December 2, 2007

The report is actually already a year old, but they had some thoughtful things to say, and it’s interesting in that it’s targeted primarily at technology companies and ISVs. Link is at the bottom. Some security-related comments on various sections of the report:

“Reinventing the user interface” – the report doesn’t say this specifically, but user-interface complexity in security-related software remains an unsolved problem. For example, how do you ask a user to decide if a given website is trusted, or if it’s been spoofed or hacked?

“Heeding the hidden costs of storage” – again the report doesn’t state the security implications directly, but one big difference between digital and paper storage is that a thief can, all too often, obtain offsite access to the former. That’s rarely the case with paper storage.

“The business case for biometrics” – an interesting, and clearly security-related, section of the document. I’m not exactly sure what their agenda was in including this – it’s almost like they thought 2007 might be ‘the year of biometrics’. That would have made me a little skeptical. On the other hand, HSPD-12, the US Government access card directive which includes requirements for biometric support, has pushed domestic adoption of the technology forward somewhat. And security-sensitive, technology-friendly industries such as military, financial, and oil have been deploying.

“The rising cost of free technology” – this section talks about free email, IM, and VoIP services. It does bear mentioning that the actual usage cost of those technologies is rarely zero – the various kinds of spam being the most notable ‘tax’. I wholeheartedly agree that customers are willing to pay a premium for solutions which reduce spam over those communications media.

http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_tmt_2007_Technology_Predictions_160106.pdf

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