Telecommunication companies provide critical communication services for smartphones, computers, tablets, or other internet-connected devices. Additionally, telecom companies are also frequently involved in B2B communications businesses providing communication solutions to diverse industry sectors. Interruption in services from any cause, especially cyber attacks, can result in operational disruptions as well as financial and reputational loss. Hence, cyber resilience is of the utmost importance.
A number of core telecommunication services are still powered by flawed protocols such as SS7 (Signalling System No. 7) and legacy core systems.
Session Control Protocol (SIP), used in most voice-over IP (VoIP) communications, is a prime target for malicious parties. Without proper security measures, hackers can easily tap into encrypted calls, distribute SIP Malware and other tamper with the VoIP services.
As much as 65% of the global DDos attacks in 2018 were aimed at communication service providers and the figure still remains high in 2020.
By 2021, Gartner estimates that some 25 billion IoT devices will be connected to telecom networks. Cyber attacks on IoT devices can lead to disruption on the whole supporting architecture.
