NetEvents: Firms with rigid security risk going the way of Nokia

Palo Alto Networks' Nir Zuk warns that lack of innovation in IT security is holding companies back

Microsoft and Nokia are good examples of companies that are under increasing pressure because of a failure to innovate, according to Nir Zuk, CTO and founder of security firewall specialist Palo Alto Networks.

Speaking at the NetEvents conference in Barcelona yesterday, Zuk said: "Nokia are not going to survive the smartphone war. Apple continues to eat away at Microsoft's market share. Everyone thought they were invincible, but they stopped innovating."

Zuk argued that the same applies to security, insisting that at the enterprise level technology has remained the same since 1995, when the internet took off.

He also said that instead of enabling new, more innovative business processes, most IT departments are shutting them down.

"Big security vendors are advising companies and IT departments to just block applications such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. As a result, IT has to just say no to everything," said Zuk.

"This is not innovating, this is going backwards. The answer is simple. You need to secure these other apps."

Zuk said that to do this, security vendors need to develop and implement "next-generation firewalls" that allow the IT department to see who the user is, which app they are using, and what they are doing there, as well as scan for viruses.

"Enterprises have firewalls in place for Facebook and Twitter, but they just block them, rather than scan for viruses. This is not enabling the business," he said.

"There are companies out there who don't understand the value of social media and and if they don't enable it they may be the next Nokia."