Globally, it is an established fact that telecommunications companies are prime targets for cyber-attacks often via a compromised web security system.
Telecoms service providers are key stakeholders in the management, operations, and warehousing of data systems, processes, infrastructure and assets.
These are instrumental in the interplay of the variables to assure personal, corporate, and other sensitive data are processed, accessed, and transmitted in a risk-free environment to consolidate the deliverables of general telecom services.
Major communication channels requiring reinforced surveillance over critical data such as telephone line data, mobile browsing data, and even messaging app data are subject targets for cybercriminals.
These channels host various classes and categories of sensitive customer data.
Telecom companies store these sensitive customer data including names, addresses, digital application credentials, payment information, and other financial transaction data of their customers.
These sets of sensitive data remain a recurring decimal in the equation as to who and what gets targeted by cybercriminals looking to compromise web security, conduct identity theft, steal money, blackmail customers, and or launch further attacks.
Another critical threat to telecommunications industry operators is the lease of critical telecoms infrastructure. Once access to these infrastructures is achieved through compromised web security, hacking, and other nefarious cyber activities, the perpetrators can steal and or compromise data remotely, initiate other attacks anonymously, and disrupt critical and costly services such as international telephone calls.
The fear of lawsuits from breach to data integrity, disruption to services, and deliverables to customers usually force telecom operators to compensate customers for their losses due to cyber breaches and in some cases settle out of court with other stakeholders who may have already sued.
To avoid scenarios of multiple lawsuits, damaged public image by affected customers, and widespread media backlash locally and internationally, Telecom companies would usually commit huge financial resources to compensate affected entities and cure the breach, resulting in a significant loss of revenue.
In September 2020, a client reached out to us to help mitigate an identified cybersecurity challenge, we set to resolve the challenges and delivered an impeccable solution that helped them achieve a 201% ROI on our solution.
The Challenge
Recognizing the risks associated in the Telecom landscape with cyber criminals preying on sensitive data, our client wanted us to help secure their infrastructure and users against various cyber threats. The cyber threats include malware, ransomware, spyware, and bandwidth misuse, which needed to be urgently mitigated.
Our client identified gross internet bandwidth misuse by certain network users leaving its infrastructure vulnerable and heavily constrained.
Some of the repercussions of bandwidth misuse include:
● Lost VoIP/Video conferencing connections
● Lost productivity from high network latency
● Limitations to business processes due to reduced reliability of internet connectivity
● Network crashes from excessive overloading
The Solution
We adopted a whole-system approach to addressing our client’s web security and bandwidth misuse challenge through extensive communication, a joint review of their identified pain points, and provided innovative leadership in the deployment of our world-class web security solution.
Our approach leveraged sustainability in the adopted solution which assured that the capacity of our solution to provide improved threat detection, better incident response methodologies, and upgraded prevention measures for clients remained ahead of the curve as part of the global industry standards.
During the various strategy sessions, we had with our client’s internal IT team to clearly understand their pain points, we discovered the peculiarities around their IT environments and their influence on the identified web security gaps.
After the problem discovery, we organized pre-deployment sessions to agree on a deployment approach for the web security system we were proffering.
In 8 weeks, we had solved the challenge of ensuring that all internet users went outside the network to the internet through a web proxy.
The Result
201% ROI generated in 24 months
Increased work productivity
High customer satisfaction
What Next?
Most operators in the Telecom sector have figured out how valuable and vulnerable the businesses have become as cyber threats via compromised web security gain momentum globally.
The irony of this context lies in the recent transformation of business processes and transactions globally following the evolving episodes of the COVID pandemics. Businesses continue to shift the bulk of their operations online, bringing telecom companies further to the limelight of the global economy as they have now been saddled with the responsibility for securing complex volumes of personal, commercial, and government transactions required to maintain some level of stability in the world today.
You don’t want to put your web security in the backseat in 2021.
In 2021, telecom companies strategizing to take lead in the offering of quality deliverables to the market will prioritize the protection and security of their data infrastructure against all forms of breaches and cyber criminality.
The right IT infrastructure, backed by a reliable security solution is critical in increasing your organization’s efficiency while protecting its resources.
