Press releaseNokia Threat Intelligence Report finds cybercriminal attacks on telco infrastructure are accelerating, driven by Generative AI and automation

• The number and frequency of DDoS attacks have grown from one or two a day to well over 100 per day in many networks, based on traffic monitored by Nokia from June 2023 to June 2024.
• North America has seen the highest number of cyberattacks due to the concentration and scale of telecom infrastructure and large enterprises in the United States.

2 October 2024Espoo, Finland – Nokia today released its tenth Threat Intelligence Report which shows that cyberattacks on telecom infrastructure are accelerating, as cybercriminals increasingly harness Generative AI and automation to increase the speed, volume, and sophistication of their attacks.

Among the report’s key findings:

• DDoS: The number and frequency of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which can overwhelm telco infrastructure with traffic and make it inoperable, have grown from one or two a day to well over 100 per day in many networks.
• Bots: Botnets continue to be the primary source of DDoS attack volume, representing about 60% of DDoS traffic monitored by Nokia from June 2023 to June 2024. During that time period, residential proxies became a prominent tool for more advanced application-layer attacks.
• Regions: North America has seen the highest number of cyberattacks – accounting for about one-third of the total – due to the concentration and scale of telecom infrastructure and large enterprises in the United States.

A botnet is a network of computers and devices controlled and used by cybercriminals for launching malicious activities, such as DDoS attacks and the theft of personal and sensitive information.

Reflecting a trend of recent years, the growth in DDoS attacks has been fueled by the proliferation of hundreds of thousands of insecure IoT devices, ranging from smart refrigerators to smartwatches, which often have lax security protections and have gigabit and multi-gigabit broadband capacity that facilitate the spread of malware. The most common malware in telecommunication networks was found to be a bot that scans for vulnerable devices, with weak encryption, passwords, or design flaws.

East Asia also faces significant data leaks due to inadvertent exposures by companies themselves, while Western Europe contends with a mix of cyber espionage and financially motivated breaches, according to the Threat Intelligence Report.

Even as Generative AI enables faster, more sophisticated attacks, communication service providers are increasingly using the same technology to improve their response times and effectiveness against cyberthreats.

Another threat concerns System-on-chips (SoCs), hardware-integrated circuits that incorporate computer components that drive higher computing and network performance and minimize power consumption. Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting SoCs to exploit vulnerabilities in various components, such as firmware, software, and hardware interfaces.

Quantum computing is another example where new threats are emerging. Organizations like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which recently standardized the first algorithms that will form components of the world’s approach to counter the potential threats of quantum computing, are continuing to help shape security strategies globally.

The Threat Intelligence Report is compiled by Nokia’s Threat Intelligence Center, the Nokia Cyber Security Center, the Nokia Security Operations Center, and the Nokia Deepfield Emergency Response Team (ERT), the company’s industry-leading IP network and DDoS security experts.

Rodrigo Brito, Head of Security, Cloud and Network Services at Nokia, said: “The use of Generative AI and automation for nefarious purposes is leading to a stepwise increase in malicious actors’ capabilities and threat potential. The Threat Intelligence findings further reinforce the need for operators, vendors, and regulators to work more collaboratively to develop more robust network security measures, practices, and awareness.”

Additional resources Webpage: CybersecurityWebpage: Deepfield Defender

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