Mobile Networks Face a Growing Security Crisis, Heavy Reading Finds

NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Equipment vendors must adopt more secure development and design practices to correct the security vulnerabilities in their network infrastructure equipment as mobile operators transition to advanced broadband services, according to a major new report from Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com), the research division of Light Reading (www.lightreading.com).

Next-Gen Security Strategies for Mobile Network Infrastructure is focused on what can be done to better secure mobile network infrastructure. It examines security best practices among the primary suppliers of mobile infrastructure equipment, analyzing their internal product development processes and the measures they take to prevent breaches of those practices. The report explores security-first product design features relating to the specific requirements of the mobile network, including the design of testing methodologies, logging mechanisms, and ease of patch implementations.

Drawing on responses to a detailed Heavy Reading survey, highlights specific vendors that are showing leadership in key areas of securing primary network infrastructure products. For a full list of mobile network infrastructure vendors profiled in this report, please see:

http://img.lightreading.com/heavyreading/pdf/hr20101119_companies.pdf

"Until relatively recently, the mobile industry has been somewhat removed from security threats. It has been possible to treat the low-level fraud that has been with the mobile industry since its inception as a minor irritant," says Patrick Donegan, Senior Analyst of Heavy Reading. "The data-oriented direction that the mobile industry is embarking on will expose the mobile network to a variety of new security challenges."

At the same time the mobile industry is evolving, cyber-attacks are gaining a higher profile within society as a whole, Donegan explains. "So where mobile network security was once taken for granted, operators, infrastructure vendors, handset vendors, and application providers are being called to account as never before and asked for reassurance, near-term solutions, and long-term roadmaps that will ensure that the next 20 years of the mobile industry's evolution are built on as secure a platform as the first."

Key findings of Next-Gen Security Strategies for Mobile Network Infrastructure include the following:

Awareness of the importance of network security is growing. The recent, high-profile cyber-attacks on Google, the US military, the governments of Georgia and Estonia, and power plants in Iran have raised awareness of network security to a new level. With the increasing pervasiveness of computing and Internet connectivity, the scale of what an attack can achieve is staggering. This is leading organizations of all types (including organized crime, terrorist groups, and some nation-states) to invest enormous time and resources into designing cyber-attacks.

The mobile network has traditionally been less vulnerable to attacks than the wireline network, but that gap is closing. The mobile network has had much less exposure to IP traffic and IP end-points, but it is growing as mobile operators acquire more mobile broadband subscribers and become true ISPs. In the architectural transition to LTE, operators will remove TDM from the network and replace it with IP protocols, which are much easier to attack. And after 20 years in commercial service, the original A5/1 encryption algorithm for GSM is finally at risk of being broken and will need supplementing with the later A5/3 algorithm.

The changing security landscape gives primary infrastructure vendors a major opportunity to differentiate their value proposition for mobile operators. Optimal mobile network security requires a layered approach, and one key layer is the security of the operator's base stations, RNCs, gateways, switches, routers, and transmission equipment. A comprehensive assessment of the security offered by these products encompasses the security of the development environment in which they are brought to market; some of the design aspects associated with their hardware and software platforms, and the interaction between the two; and their support of the security feature roadmaps defined by the likes of 3GPP and the IETF.

Next-Gen Security Strategies for Mobile Network Infrastructure is essential reading for a wide range of industry participants, including the following:

• Network operators: What catalysts are altering the network security landscape, and what measures are available to stay ahead of the security curve? Which infrastructure vendors are in the best position to meet your needs for next-generation mobile network security? How does the evolving business model for mobile services alter the security environment? What pressures are governments likely to exert on operators to ensure that their networks can withstand the most serious cyber-threats? How can network operators improve their operational security practices and better educate users on security issues?
• Equipment vendors: How do your secure development practices, product designs, and implementation of security features in primary network elements compare with those of your competitors? What opportunities do primary infrastructure vendors have to differentiate their network security value proposition for mobile operators? How do your competitors prioritize security in their product design philosophies and go-to-market strategies? How will the security feature roadmaps of the 3GPP and IETF influence how mobile operators evaluate and select their primary infrastructure vendors?
• Investors: Which vendors are best placed to serve the security needs of next-generation mobile network service providers? How will the developing requirement for security at the application level as well as the network level influence winners and losers in this critical market? How has the increased involvement of organized crime and politically motivated organizations (including both nation-states and terrorist groups) changed the security landscape? How does the outsourcing of R&D activity by major vendors to foreign countries and third-party partners complicate network and application security?

Next-Gen Security Strategies for Mobile Network Infrastructure costs $3,995 and is published in PDF format. The price includes an enterprise license covering all of the employees at the purchaser's company.

About Heavy Reading

Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next-generation hardware and software.

About UBM TechWeb

UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and professional information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its three core businesses – media solutions, marketing services and paid content – UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands and media applications in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs and IT managers, Web & Digital professionals, Software Developers, Government decision makers, and Telecom providers) actively engage in UBM TechWeb's communities and information resources monthly. UBM TechWeb brands includes: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and Enterprise Connect; award-winning online resources such as InformationWeek, Light Reading, and Network Computing; and market-leading magazines InformationWeek, Wall Street & Technology, and Advanced Trading. UBM TechWeb is a UBM company, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities – from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists – with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com.

SOURCE Heavy Reading

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