Challenges, Possibilities Rise For Online Security Providers.(A)

By Janet Purdy Levaux

Investor's Business Daily

"We don't promise to eliminate risk, just mitigate it."

With that statement, an executive with a vendor at an Internet security showthis week in San Francisco summed up the field.

The executive wouldn't be identified, but the issue is: As companies do morebusiness online, the need for -- and the threats to -- security rises.

Thus, about 10,000 people are attending this week's RSA Conference 2001. It's the 10th annual show. The first attracted some 100 folks, mostly mathematicians and cryptographers. Of course, that was a few years before the Web hit the mainstream.

RSA Security Inc. of Bedford, Mass., is the main sponsor of the conference. It's one of the largest sellers of security …