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Security of mobile Internet networks under scrutiny
A French security website reports a vulnerability with Airspan's ProST WiMAX CPE and Alcatel-Lucent trials a mobile broadband optimization and security solution with Bell Mobility.
The French Security Incident Response Team (FrSIRT) website announced the discovery of a vulnerability with Airspan's ProST WiMAX CPE. The report explains that the concern could be exploited by remote attack to bypass security restrictions and change the network's configuration. The site does not reference other vendors' equipment, suggesting that the gap is specific to Airspan's ProST devices and not a general issue for WiMAX products. "We take security very seriously and have notified our ProST customers of a patch available to alleviate any concerns," said Chad Pralle, marketing vice president for Airspan Networks. "Someone tinkering with frequency channels could have disabled their own ProST device, but at no time was access to network traffic or to the core network compromised."
WiMAX and IP-based mobile broadband networks (including LTE and future 4G services) are likely to encounter security issues as regional and nationwide networks are rolled out commercially. Will these issues resemble those encountered by Wi-Fi technologies, cellular voice networks or something entirely new?
Alcatel-Lucent offers a solution to better prepare mobile network operators for the onslaught of data consumption, battery-hungry applications and denial of service attacks with the 9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG). 3G carriers have not had a tool that could single-handedly track IP traffic across the many network layers and measure consumption of wireless network resources - a situation that could cause service-affecting network problems as new applications are transmitted on wireless networks. Common home and office broadband applications like email are considered bandwidth hogs for cellular Internet access. This type of solution also enables carriers to detect and protect their networks from a new class of wireless-specific denial of service (DOS) attacks targeted at the signaling layer and exhausting limited RF channels. Alcatel-Lucent is currently in trial with Bell Mobility of Canada.
"Circuit-switched mobile networks introduce significant overhead setting up and tearing down communications channels," adds Airspan's Pralle. "A short data transmission on cellular will spend more time on-air than wireless IP network protocols such as WiMAX and LTE." Service providers can learn from traffic patterns witnessed in large scale Wi-Fi deployments to understand how WiMAX networks will behave. Large file transfers and streaming multimedia content, not email applications, consume the greatest capacity.
Open networks and a shift to IP-centric data applications create new possibilities for mobile Internet communications. A number of challenges, including information security and thwarting malicious attacks, will need to be addressed as the mobile broadband market matures. Rapid vendor response to security and privacy issues along with creative network solutions are necessary to keep innovation ahead of hackers and mobile traffic jams.
By Jeff Orr
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