Mobile Internet Security & Service Integrity

Mobile Internet Security Challenges

Mobile Internet networks are exposed to new security and service integrity challenges brought on by carrying uncontrolled Internet and peering traffic that contain growing volumes of malicious attacks. Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, worms and malware aimed at critical mobile network infrastructure throughout the Gi/Pi network can negatively impact high-touch servers including DNS, DHCP and RADIUS, causing service disruptions and failures as well as compromising network elements by attacking the control plane and the management plane through targeted exploits. Mobile Internet network threats include new forms of compound DoS/DDoS worm attacks that consume huge volumes of bandwidth, while propagating aggressively across mobile networks and subscribers in minutes rather than days.

Other forms of attacks include low-scale traffic scanning/probing as well as targeted BOT attacks. In addition, new low-rate battery draining attacks have emerged as an effective means of exploiting mobile handsets as well as the mobile network itself through paging attacks.

Thus, in addition to threatening mobile Internet service continuity, uncontrolled attack traffic causes severe service disruptions that degrade service and prevent carriers from meeting customer service level agreements (SLAs).