The cyberattacks on telecommunications companies (telcos) and Internet service providers (ISPs) have increased in recent years. These organizations are an attractive target for cybercriminals due to being the backbone of communication and services on a global level, and because of the large amount of sensitive data they handle, such as customer personal information, financial and billing data, among others.
PWC points out that the telecommunications sector provides vital services on which millions of consumers and most businesses depend. It also highlights that, just from video traffic alone, global data consumption managed through telecommunications networks is expected to increase from 3.4 million petabytes in 2022 to 9.7 million petabytes in 2027.
Due to this level of growth, companies in this sector are implementing digital transformation strategies to remain competitive and enhance the customer experience with the goal of expanding business opportunities. In this sense, cybersecurity becomes doubly important as they need to secure their internal infrastructure and provide solutions that protect the networks and services of their end customers.
According to EY, telecommunications companies are struggling to stay ahead of the growing cyber threats, as 46% of consumers believe it is impossible to keep their personal data safe when using the Internet.
From this perspective, Hillstone Networks, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions, identifies the major challenges for telcos and ISPs as focusing on key issues such as: protecting large interconnected networks, maintaining and updating legacy cybersecurity technology, data protection, reducing inherent gaps in the growth of services and expansion of their networks, as well as combating the lack of specialists and technical knowledge on a global level.
“Currently, we are assisting telcos and Internet service providers with perimeter protection solutions, network micro-segmentation, host and container security, VCS isolation, web security, XDR, and centralized management and monitoring,” said Rafael Santana, Technical Marketing Engineer at Hillstone Networks. “In the region, there are companies of this type serving millions of users and others focused on 5 or 10 thousand users. Each has particular requirements both internally and with their customers, and for all of them there are cybersecurity solutions that meet and adapt to their needs,” he added.
In the case of service providers offering security to their clients, Hillstone Networks joins the fight for the democratization of cybersecurity by offering affordable solutions, as small and medium-sized enterprises are the most vulnerable to cyberattacks due to the lack of specialized personnel and limited budget.
“In some countries in the region, a ransomware attack on a small company can be lethal. Our experience with clients indicates that approximately 22% of small businesses that suffer this type of attack fail to recover,” Santana pointed out.