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Cosy Agubor
Federal University of Technology Owerri
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In view of the increasing rate of attacks and the impact telecommunication towers. This has put most parts of the
on the economy whenever it occurs, a review of the affected areas into a ‘zero-network.
prevalent attacks and recommended mitigations for
developing countries are presented in this paper. In Syria and Iraq, telecommunication towers and other
outdoor equipment have been regularly targeted by
II. CLASSIFICATION OF ATTACKS insurgents. In Nepal, during the ten-year civil war (1999 -
Attacks related to telecommunication infrastructure 2009), hundreds of towers and outdoor equipment were
may be carried out by various attackers with malicious attacked and destroyed by Maoists. FARC rebels, another
intent and without any good reason for carrying out such terror group in Colombia have an extended history of
attacks. In some cases their actions may be driven by the destroying telecommunication towers with explosives.
desire to cause total communication failure or generate
illegal profits. Attacks or threats on telecommunication It is a deliberate military strategy for rebel or terrorist
infrastructure can be classified as shown in Fig. 1. groups to target and destroy telecoms asset. Their main
objective of carrying out such physical destructions of
assets is often associated with their potential role in
Telecoms assisting states in tracking terrorist planning and
Threats/Attacks movement [5].
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Unauthorized access - Gaining access to systems such as home routers from Internet Service Providers
you are no authority or have no permission to (ISPs). Once the equipment has been compromised, it
access. becomes possible for hackers to steal data, launch other
attacks, store infiltrated data, or access expensive services
D. General Threats/Attacks such as international phone calls. In order to avoid
This involves players like special government agencies. upsetting their customers, telecommunication companies
It is a form of hacktivism with nation-state sponsorship generally refund any charge associated with such
[8]. Three different cases used to illustrate the nature of malicious attacks. This often results to significant loss of
such attacks in [9] are: revenue to the organization.
Case No 1: Government agencies are increasingly In Table 1, various forms of attacks or threats and their
attacking telecommunication operators’ infrastructure and likely outcomes are summarized.
applications to establish covert surveillance. Very
Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) is used. With APT, Table I: Threats and likely outcomes [2].
sophisticated actors carrying out covert surveillance and Attacks/Threats Outcome
can operate undetected for long periods of time. Unauthorised physical access to Destruction or theft of
Communication channels targeted for covert surveillance switching equipment, information and
include phone lines, online chat, mobile phone data, etc. telecommunication cable and equipment, interception or
Covert surveillance in the form of cyber attack may be other critical network monitoring of the network
infrastructure, e.g. Authentication traffic.
between nations. There have been cases where one
Centre (AuC), Home Location
nation’s cyber-attack prevented another nation’s leaders Register (HLR) and Visitor
from communicating on their mobile devices. Location Register (VLR).
Interception of voice traffic due to Unauthorized access to
Case No 2: Given that telecommunication companies absence of encryption for speech telecommunication
control critical infrastructure, any shutdown has great channels and inadequate network traffic.
impact on the economy. For example, during severe authentication in PSTN networks.
petroleum product crisis in Nigeria mid-2015, the Use of modified mobile stations to Spoofing of user de-
exploit weaknesses in the registration and location
telecommunication companies were affected because they
authentication of messages update requests, leading to
run on diesel generators, consequently, banks and various received over the radio interface. unreliable service.
organizations could not sustain their regular services. Deployment of malicious Use of these compromised
applications on devices like smart devices to target the
Case No 3: Customer data is another important and phones and Tablets. operator’s network.
high impact target. It is the tradition of Compromise of the AuC or SIM Identity theft (intruders
Telecommunication organizations to register their used for storing the shared secret masquerading as
numerous customers. By so doing they typically store for the challenge-response legitimate users).
mechanism.
personal information about all of their customers such as
Intrusions into the operator’s Unauthorised changes to
names, addresses and financial data. This sensitive data networks the users’ service profiles
becomes a compelling target for cyber-criminals or resulting to unreliable
insiders, whose aim may be to steal money, conduct service and fraud.
identity theft, blackmail customers, or launch any other Gaining access to network Destruction or alteration
form of attack databases containing customer of personal and
information. confidential data.
A stolen laptop may not be taken as a serious case. It
is one of the several ways of information loss. Of course III. RECOMMENDATIONS
in every sector, laptops can be lost or stolen. The problem A. Telecommunication Network Security
however, tends to be worse in telecommunication sector The required technology must be put in place to
because their employees often serve customers as part of safeguard critical telecommunication infrastructure and
a call center or help desk function and may have large assets. In regions where there are military conflicts with
amounts of sensitive customer data stored in their laptops. high rate of terror attacks, telecommunication outdoor
The theft of such a piece of equipment may put several infrastructure like towers, radio equipment and power
individuals or the company at great risk. generating sets should be sited on safer areas not likely to
be attacked by insurgents. This is necessary to avoid
One critical threat unique to the telecommunications physical destruction of installed equipment. It may also be
sector is the attack of leased infrastructure equipment, necessary to have mutual agreement between government
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security agencies and network providers on ways of Access Controls (EAC), mechanical combination locksets
securing key telecommunication installations. or deadbolts, should be used to control access [12]. A list
of persons authorized to access these sensitive areas or
B. Operations Security (OPSEC) spaces should be maintained to avoid unauthorized entry.
OPSEC focuses on preventing the leakage of vital The organization should also maintain a control log for
information or security procedures concerning an security audit purposes.
organization to the outside world. It is concerned with
refining operational procedures and workflows to increase F. Security infrastructure implementation
the security properties of an organization. For example, an Important policies and processes adopted by an
organization may restrict what employees post on their organization should be supported by a security
Facebook pages or other social media especially when infrastructure that includes multiple security layers as in
such issues are about the organization’s security “Defense-in-Depth” approach [3]. This strategy allows for
procedures which are not meant for public consumption. different layers of security such that the compromise of
one security layer alone does not expose the network to
C. Security by Default attacks. Some of the security measures that can be
Organizations or companies should develop a deployed across the various layers are:
systematic method of preventing or fighting attacks in Interference and tamper-proof cabling
their establishment. Staff should frequently be trained and infrastructure.
examined for compliance. Appropriate computer Close Circuit Television (CCTV) and security
resources should be used to enforce security in a guards monitoring of the operator’s premises.
systematic way before they occur. Security by default Physical access control mechanisms like
focuses on three themes [10]: smartcard and biometric readers.
Firewalls at the network perimeter for publicly
Prevention or designing systems that is harder to accessible systems
hack. Host and network-based Intrusion
Resilience or designing systems that can offer Detection/Protection Systems (IDPS).
secure transactions even after they have been Security Information and Event Management
compromised. (SIEM) systems for handling of security events
Regeneration or designing systems that can and logs that are generated by multiple systems.
automatically repair themselves when breaches Malware management by using antivirus,
are detected. antispyware technologies on internal systems
and mail servers.
D. Criminalization of Cybercrime Secure application development practices
In relation to cybercrime, the Cybercrime Convention Carrying out security checks on the
of the Council of Europe called for eight offenses to be telecommunication equipment, perimeters,
criminalized. These offences are [11]: critical network components and applications.
Illegal interception Encryption and data masking techniques for both
Data interference data at rest and transit.
System interference Security awareness
Misuse of devices
Computer-related forgery IV. CONCLUSION
Computer-related fraud Telecommunications infrastructure is a big target for
Offenses related to child pornography, cyber-attacks. This is because they build, control and
Offenses related to infringement of copyright operate critical networks that are widely used to
and related rights. communicate and store large amounts of sensitive data.
Legislation should be given for all these offences where Telecommunication network from a global point of view
there are none so as to deter prospective criminals. is a mix of both fixed and mobile phone networks which
provides the traditional access for computer related
crimes or cybercrimes e.g. phishing, hacking, spoofing,
E. Restriction to sensitive areas
etc, to be perpetuated.
Telecommunications spaces, pathways and equipment
rooms should be secured and treated as restricted zones.
Access to these areas should be monitored, controlled and The attacks may cause damage such as sensitive
limited to authorized and properly security-cleared information being leaked and security documents exposed
persons only. Methods such as installation of Electronic which may put both individuals and the affected
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REFERENCES
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