With DDoS Attacks Multiplying, Rural Providers Face Cybersecurity Gap
The digital divide isn’t the only gap industry should worry about as rural carriers also face a cybersecurity gap, said Terry Young, director-5G product marketing at A10 Networks, during a Fierce Telecom virtual conference Thursday. Other speakers said open radio access networks will have a role in bridging the digital divide.
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The gap is growing “between the capabilities of cyber criminals that can launch DDoS [distributed denial-of-service] attacks and other malicious activities and the capabilities and limited budgets and resources of the regional service providers,” Young said. DDoS attacks are difficult to detect because they look like normal network traffic, she said. A-10, a global security company, estimates some 15.4 million weapons -- computers, servers and IoT devices -- can potentially be used in DDoS attacks.
The two leading nations for DDoS weapons are China and the U.S., with the U.S. having more per capita than any other nation in the world, Young said. “Year after year, DDoS attacks grow in intensity and volume and in frequency,” she said. “These kinds of attacks chew up tons of resources and time trying to get them under control,” she said. Carriers need to protect themselves and their customers from attacks but also be sure their own network elements aren’t being used, she said.
Many DDoS attacks are relatively small, under 10 GB, but that amount of data makes a difference for a small provider whose total traffic volume may be 150 GB and can affect overall service quality and even shut down service to some customers, Young said. “These small attacks, these frequent attacks, are the ones that rural operators need to be especially concerned about,” she said.
ORAN “is about rural as well as urban,” said Renuka Bhalerao, Meta Connectivity lead-ORAN ecosystems and technologies. Early adopters showed the technology behind ORAN works, but there are also business and operational challenges, she said. “There are active trials going on in the lab as well as in the field, there are active deployments,” she said: “We are still a bit [away] from a completely new world in terms of replacing the existing RAN with an open RAN.”
“We need to push for open RAN in order to handle all the traffic that our rural area actually has,” said Alessandro DeFilippi, chief technology officer at Internet Para Todos in Peru. ORAN is a “hot topic,” but “there are many different flavors,” he said. About 20% of the company’s network is already ORAN, he said.
There are new deployments coming, and more operators are talking about ORAN, DeFilippi said. Most early ORAN work was focused on 4G, but has shifted to 5G, he said.
ORAN technology and the need for a diverse set of suppliers “is applicable to 4G, 5G, and will be applicable to 6G,” Bhalerao said. “The more we work in that direction the better the whole supply side gets,” she said.
Any new technology “is a process,” said Monica Paolini, president-Senza Fili consultancy. “You keep improving and there is so much that needs to be done,” she said. Some think ORAN is really a 6G technology, she said: “Let’s hope not … We don’t have to wait for 6G.”
Other speakers said this is a critical time for closing the digital divide.
Federal funding for broadband “is getting momentum,” said Robin Olds, Cisco business development manager. “We’re seeing communications service providers really investing in building out their broadband … making significant investments,” he said. New providers, funded by private equity, are entering the market, he said. For new entrants, “understanding the various public funding programs that are out there, and understanding the requirements and the timelines … is really important,” he said.
NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program provides $48 billion for broadband, compared with a cumulative $38 billion from similar programs in the past, Olds said. An additional 40 million homes will gain access to fiber or fixed-wireless by 2025, he said.
“The digital divide is not a new issue,” said Chris Denzin, Ziply Fiber chief operating officer. “We have been battling this for decades as the internet has evolved to what most consider table stakes for how we work, how we communicate, how we access health services and more,” he said: “As an industry, as a society, we have been woefully slow in addressing the gap between haves and have-nots.” It took the COVID-19 pandemic to “drive meaningful change,” he said.