Investment in cyber security solutions is yet to become a top priority for telecom network operators, analysts are pointing out.
Traditional telecom networks are based on closed operating system infrastructures that can be effectively protected from hacking and other attacks. Hence they are vulnerable to security threats and can cause destructive impacts on company brands and bottom lines.
Recent researches have suggested that many cyber security executives have revealed that the information protection in the corporate sector is still lacking in many ways, with the number of security incidents across all industries worldwide rising by 38 percent in 2015.
Market Status and Figures
The cyber security market is expected to grow from $122.45 billion in 2016 to $202.36 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 10.6 percent.
Breaches affecting reputation, financial loss and job security have become the main concerns associated with falling victim to cyber-attacks.
With developments like IoT and Big Data, complexities and security challenges in telecom networks and systems, have increased manifold. Organizations need to acquire services from the available vendors to hire cyber security solutions.
Areas such as data protection, compliance, architecture, email security, web security, governance, data loss prevention, security information and event management, and identity and access, are the ones that need to be hit by the solutions. IoT-enabled devices and their rollouts of 5G will challenge operators to face a surge in data usage, raising their ARPU (average revenue per user) while the networks deal with privacy and infrastructure security concerns.
Also, mobile payment transactions, increasing the risk of attacks, are estimated to hike with the amount reaching $118.01 billion in the US in 2018, according to research company eMarketer.
As per the GSISS survey last year, only 54 percent of telecom respondents have a security awareness and training program and perform risk assessments on third-party vendors like cloud providers, a decline over the year before.
Also, reports by Intel Security and CSIS have summed up that there is a cybersecurity talent crisis in Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, U.S. and U.K, at present, with an estimated average of 15 percent of cybersecurity positions in their company will go unfilled by 2020.
Increasing sophistication of cyber attacks and penetration of data breaches lead to telecom industry adopting security software. The security software market in the telecom industry will grow at a CAGR of 13.31 percent over the period 2014-2019, conveyed Technavio analyst report.
In Britain, economists at the CEBR have estimated that the total cost of a serious data breach to a business over one year is £1.2 million on average, which agrees with recent British Government estimates that security breaches would cost companies £1.46 million, revised up from £600,000 in 2014. Also, telecom companies are the most vulnerable businesses in Britain to cyber attacks, yet spend the least on defending themselves against hackers, conveyed an industry-wide survey.
With cyber crimes cost touching $100 billion in North America alone, attacks on government organizations and telecom operations caused a breach of 21.5 million personal information records and affected 15 million customers. The market is estimated to grow to $67.28 billion by the end of 2022.
Possible Solutions
Major solutions for cyber security include Cloud-based hybrid security, mobile security, bring your own device (BYOD) technology, and practice of integrated security solutions are being implemented universally for increasing telecom security.
Security software solutions can protect the application and management network in the telecom industry from disruption and loss of confidential data.
Latest reports suggest that 50 percent of telecom companies have a security strategy for cloud computing. Cloud computing used as the core environment for IoT market provides services and required solutions to insure those cloud based services will remain unharmed.
Also, many telecoms and communications providers have started to provide cyber security services.
FCC issued many rulings over the past three years stating that, “With respect to communications security, while IP technologies can produce cost efficiencies, they also can create the potential for network security risks through the exposure of network monitoring and control systems to end users.“
Research has also revealed that both telecoms and technology sectors spend 13 percent of their IT budget on security.
In addition to this, half of telecom top officials participating in the survey believed their company would experience a significant breach within a year’s time.
With reports that the governments are not investing enough in building cyber security, political issues in the U.S.,U.K., Israel and Australia have called for increased support for the cyber security workforce in the last year.
Owing to reports that at least 80 percent of European companies have experienced at least one cyber security incident over the last year, the EU Commission recently launched a new public-private partnership on cyber-security, titled the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO), expected to gain about €1.8 billion of investment by 2020. Telefonica has been selected as the only telecom operator to join the board.
Vodafone, one of the top telecoms firms, has set up its own security arm. The UK-based telecom company will begin selling cyber technology developed with BAE systems to business customers, including 80pc of FTSE 100-listed companies.
Cisco announced that it will further improve its network security portfolio, announcing several new products at its Cisco Live event to improve and simplify security within network infrastructure as well as at endpoints, utilizing the cloud. Cisco also said that it witnessed a 17 percent growth during its fiscal third quarter, amounting to $482 million.
Samsung recently invested in Cambridge cyber security specialist Darktrace, which has already raised $105.5 million in a year and was followed by a recent $65 million invested by global big hitters.
Scenario in India
In India, increasing terrorist threats, cyber crimes and data breaches are driving investments in monitoring, security in IT and video surveillance systems.
The Indian video surveillance market is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth of over 13 percent between 2016 and 2022.
For the past few years, Indian companies including financial institutions and business enterprises have fallen prey to varied cyber-security attacks, leading to major monetary losses.
The country which ranks fifth in the list of countries most vulnerable to advanced cyber attacks, with the main reason behind he attacks being attributed to laxity on the companies parts in updating their network security infrastructure.
Globally, companies in India are comparatively more ignorant towards their security infrastructure, with programs like the Bug Bounty having weak adoption in India. Experts have explained that Indian companies need to increase vigilance and security activity to curb these attacks.
Vina Krishnan
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