LTE brings new security concerns for telcos
As long-term evolution (LTE) networks, such as Telstra's new 4G network, bring about super fast mobile broadband to consumers across the globe, they could also potentially open up smartphones, tablets and other devices to hacks that previously only concerned PC users, according to network vendor Alcatel-Lucent. Unlike existing networks, which are partially IP-based, LTE networks are all-IP networks.
"Migration to LTE will ... open up a huge can of worms for operators. Put simply, when devices are connected to IP networks, with their own IP addresses, they become vulnerable to attack in much the same way as personal computers: devices can be hacked, spoofed or infected with viruses," Alcatel-Lucent's senior product manager, Ashwin Rana said in a blog earlier this month.
"They can be used by hackers to launch denial of service (DoS) or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, just like PCs. What's more, it's not just the devices that can be compromised — entire LTE network elements are at risk." Rana said that while there are some security measures around for LTE networks, they were inconsistent, with some methods proposed favouring only protecting signalling data and not the user data on the LTE network.
