Page 101 - CDM-CYBER-DEFENSE-eMAGAZINE-December-2018

As the public has had to slowly learn how to protect themselves on their PCs, online, and on their phones,
they will also be learning on how to stay safe as an increasing number of their devices go online. The
security industry, too, will have to adjust to this new reality.

On a national level, while countries are improving their cyber potential, more focus needs to be turned to
critical infrastructure: telecoms, energy, industry. In 2018, vulnerabilities at the firmware level have been
detected among many manufacturers, such as MikroTik, Netgear, and TP-Link. This means that
vulnerable routers may become part of a new or existing botnet, and that companies that do not keep
network equipment up to date are under threat. Industrial and energy companies are at greatest risk of
these attacks.

Telecoms, however, is perhaps at the greatest risk. Although operators are well aware of security issues,
78 percent of telecom networks are vulnerable to attacks. SMS interception, for example, is still possible
in nine cases out of 10.

This is also a much more complicated issue to solve. This is primarily due to the fact that in order to
increase the protection level, current standards and operating procedures of signaling networks have to
be reviewed. 5G mobile network is currently under development but no significant progress in security
has been achieved so far. Moreover, even once agreed, it may take years for a new security technology
to become actively used.

On ground level, it is often hard to make heads nor tail of how we are progressing in improving our cyber
security capabilities. However, by taking a historical perspective and looking at global trends, it is clear
that progress has been made in the past 15 years. Companies and governments are undoubtedly taking
security seriously, and spend is going up year on year. Taking a step back also helps us see the progress
that still needs to be made, and the threats that need to be addressed next.

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