Security News > 2022 > February > Leveraging mobile networks to threaten national security

In this interview with Help Net Security, Rowland Corr, Director of National Security Intelligence at AdaptiveMobile Security, explains how mobile networks can be leveraged as part of a cyber warfare strategy, why is this a growing national concern, and how to implement defences against such sophisticated attacks.

Where nations face the threat of overt military attack, mobile telecom networks can potentially be used by an attacker to further amplify advantage in offensive military operations as a force multiplier by enhancing real-time targeting capabilities.

The type of telecommunications-based attack that offers readily realisable potential for use in this respect is a targeted DoS attack executable remotely via signalling protocols on targeted mobile networks.

Threat actors would be far less able to execute such attacks if mobile networks were better protected in the first place against intrusions not to mention the repeated data breaches from their networks that continue to expose troves of personally identifiable information on an ongoing basis.

While all computer networks are valuable and important, mobile networks form part of the Critical National Infrastructure of a state, and an attack on them should be recognised accordingly.

To start implementing defences, mobile networks in a country should implement the GSMA signalling security recommendations FS.11 for SS7, FS.19 for Diameter, and FS.20 for GTP-C. This is a starting point for mobile network signalling defences, however it is only a starting point and should not be relied upon as well-resourced attackers will find a way around any static defence, as shown in the Simjacker attacks.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/02/28/mobile-networks-cyber-warfare/