Attended a ISACA Chapter meeting this week - attended by about 20 IT security specialists - mostly CISA's and some CISSP's. The main topic was the state of Payment Card Industry -Data Security Standards compliance, i.e. protection of Visa Card information by merchants, payment processors and acquirers. 

When the subject of wireless use by came up, there was a resounding silence in the room. This suggests several things, namely: i.) a genuine lack of Wi-Fi knowledge within this hard core IT security community; and ii.) an obvious phobia surrounding the use of any form of Wi-Fi by merchants, payment processors or acquirers. The recent TJX debacle was cited by the meeting speaker as a primary example of the universal problems with Wi-Fi.

One of attendees, the IT Security Head of a $1B local business, became skittish when I asked him if they utilize any Wi-Fi - he apologetically acknowldeged they do have several applications but intend to remove and replace them with trusted wire links.

Apart from myself, there wasn't a single CWNP in the room & no one at our table knew what the CWSP designation on my business card meant. This apparent lack of knowledge and understanding, poses a huge barrier to the sensible use of Wi-Fi in modern day business applications.

Somehow, we need to close this gap by getting to these IT security folks and educating them. Far too many of these highly influential technology advisors are still back in the dark ages of Wi-Fi technology.