For the third time in a row, Positive Technologies (PT) has a tier 1 ranking as a signaling firewall provider in the annual Signalling Firewall Vendor Benchmarking Report 2021. Its product, Next Generation Signaling Protection Platform, Telecom Attack Discovery, was ranked as one of the best out of 27 vendors after the evaluation of 97 mobile network operators (MNOs), across 88 countries, receiving an overall rating of 4.54 out of 5.
Positive Technologies was in the lead for General Rating, where Rocco ranks vendors based on the general perception of MNOs across all vendors. This feeds into the company’s overall vision and strategy to be a trusted and strategic advisor in telecoms security.
SS7 attacks continue to keep MNOs up at night. This stems from the rise in attacks exploiting the SS7 protocol compared to Diameter in 2020. According to Positive Technologies’ SS7 network security analysis 2020 report, the risks lie in the fact that cybercriminals can buy access to SS7 networks illegally on the dark web, as well as SS7 being cursed with architectural security flaws which make them attractive to cyber criminals. Due to vulnerabilities in the SS7 protocol, 2G and 3G networks are opening the door for hackers to potentially track a customer’s every move, listen in on calls, intercept SMS messages, instigate fraud or even strip them of service.
Positive Technologies Next-Generation Signaling Protection Platform, Telecom Attack Discovery (TAD) enables mobile network operators to secure networks that use Signalling System 7 (SS7), Diameter and GTP protocols to protect subscribers and safeguard core assets (devices, networks and applications) from cyberattacks. PT TAD combines the traditional firewall with IDS signalling Intrusion Detection system. This firewall seamlessly integrates with SIEM solutions and supports networks built from equipment of multiple vendors such as Cisco, Nokia, VMware, Ericsson and Huawei.
Amit Nath, CEO of Positive Technologies, commented, “Signalling security is still a niche discipline and with PT, clients have signalling experts on hand to deliver technical support every step of the way. In the telecoms security space, we are one of the youngest security vendors on the market. Despite this, we have taken on other heavyweight titans in the industry which have been operating for decades. MNOs are placing more value on prevention rather than remediation. With this in mind, the capability to spot trends and incoming threats has become a priority. We have demonstrated sustainable growth through our innovative and holistic solutions, strong customer experience and deep domain expertise and threat intelligence into infrastructure vulnerabilities to secure subscriber services and networks.
“Securing previous generation networks is pivotal from both a regulatory and competitive perspective, especially as MNOs ramp up to 5G. 5G NSA networks inherit the same vulnerabilities as previous networks and so it's important to make sure traffic filtering through SS7, Diameter and GTP protocols are monitored. With PT TAD, mobile operators can guarantee compliance with GSMA (including FS.11, FS.19, and IR.82), GDPR, ENISA, FCC, and other regulations. The firewall platform provides all the relevant information needed for mobile operators to evidence compliance.”
“The feature set of Telecom Attack Discovery is exceptionally rich, plus the Positive Technologies team are real experts with a telecom security focus. That's why I feel collaborating with Positive Technologies was a great decision,” commented a Positive Technologies customer.
“Our major goal was to enhance our security levels, and we were searching for a vendor that can provide a solution with great service quality and outstanding support from the team. Positive Technologies provided their help and training on deployment and use of its Signalling Firewall, and we found it to be a highly functional solution - I would say leading the market. With its help and the help of the PT experts we experience solid real-time protection of networks. Positive Technologies helped boost our security levels to the top,” said another Positive Technologies customers.
