Nokia recently released its tenth Threat Intelligence Report, revealing a significant rise in cyberattacks directed towards telecommunication infrastructures.
Fueled by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and automation, these cyberattacks have become more sophisticated, increasing their speed and volume.
Rodrigo Brito, Nokia’s Head of Security at Cloud and Network Services, said, “The use of generative AI and automation for nefarious purposes is leading to a stepwise increase in malicious actors’ capabilities and threat potential.”
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Highlights of the Threat Intelligence Report
Nokia’s report underscores several key findings, offering deeper insight into the threat landscape telecommunication companies are facing.
According to the report, the frequency of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks has skyrocketed, growing from one or two per day to 100 attacks daily on multiple networks. This dramatic increase in DDoS attacks leads to traffic overwhelming telco infrastructure, making it inoperable.
Botnets remain the dominant source of DDoS attacks, accounting for 60% of DDoS traffic monitored by the Finnish telecom giant from June 2023 until June 2024. Cybercriminals utilize the networks of computers and devices to launch DDoS attacks and extract personal and sensitive data.
Furthermore, a notable rise in the use of residential proxies has been observed during this period, consequently becoming the prominent tool cybercriminals use for more advanced application-layer attacks.
The report also pointed out the increasing problem of insecure Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as smart refrigerators and wearables, being exploited due to their weak security measures. Many of these devices lack robust protections, making them vulnerable to misuse by hackers and other malicious actors. These devices possess gigabit and multi-gigabit broadband capacity that can facilitate the spread of the malware. The telecom networks’ most common malware was identified as a bot designed to scan for vulnerable devices with weak encryption, password, and design flaws.
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Regional Cyber Threats
Nokia’s Threat Intelligence Report also outlined the regions mostly affected by these attacks.
North America emerged as the region with the highest number of cyberattacks, accounting for approximately one-third of all cyberattacks reported, attributed to the concentration and scale of telecom infrastructures and large enterprises.
Additionally, East Asia is grappling with significant data leaks from involuntary exposures by companies, while Western Europe is facing cyber espionage and financially motivated breaches.
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GenAI in Cyber Threats and Attacks
With the intensified GenAI-driven cyberattacks, communication service providers (CSPs) are leveraging the same technology to enhance response times and effectiveness to combat these threats and attacks.
The report also identified System-on-Chips (SoCs) as the target of these threats. Cybercriminals utilize these hardware-integrated circuits to exploit vulnerabilities in various components, including firmware, software, and hardware interfaces.
The advent of quantum computing appears to be facilitating the emergence of new cyber threats. Nokia emphasized the efforts of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in standardizing algorithms to counteract potential vulnerabilities initiated by quantum computing.
Nokia’s Head of Security stressed the importance of the report’s findings in reinforcing the need for operators, vendors, and regulators to work collaboratively in developing more robust network security measures, practices, and awareness.
The Threat Intelligence Report amassed by the Nokia Cyber Security Center, Nokia Security Operations Center, and Nokia Deepfield Emergency Response Team (ERT), underscores the company’s commitment to mitigating cyberattacks to safeguard the digital landscape.
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