According to a new report from Nokia, infections of Internet of Things (IoT) devices have increased significantly in the last year.
The company ’s “ Threat Intelligence Report 2020 ” revealed that infected IoT devices now make up nearly a third (32.7%) of all such devices. In 2019, the figure was 16.2%.
Nokia argued that infection rates depend largely on the visibility of devices on the Internet.
“In networks where devices are typically assigned public IP addresses, we find a high rate of IoT infection. In networks where CGNAT (carrier grade NAT) is used, the infection rate is significantly reduced, because vulnerable devices are not visible in network scanning,” the report said.
“With the advent of 5G, not only will the number of IoT devices increase dramatically, but also the percentage of those devices that will be accessible directly from the Internet“.
Nokia warned that other aspects of 5G will also bring new challenges to security telecom: specifically Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-defined Networking (SDN). These elements may pose risks for CSPs.
“CSPs' network infrastructure is becoming more accessible to attackers, so they are increasingly targeted by specialized cybercriminals“.
Furthermore, according to Infosecurity Magazine, the different uses of 5G will give cybercriminals even more opportunities for attacks.
Security , must be a priority , and that means it needs to be built into networks from the ground up, covering all parts of the ecosystem, but managed from a central point of control. In addition, according to Nokia, automated orchestration and management, as well as proactive security checks are key elements.
