The hottest news in cybersecurity recently was a couple of weeks ago when the U.S. House Committee for Energy and Commerce questioned TikTok CEO Shou Chew about TikTok’s potential national security threats because of its connections to China. One takeaway from the hearing was that the members of Congress seemed woefully uneducated about TikTok and internet apps, in general. Ironically, TikTok proved to be the ideal platform to mock the congressmen.
Meanwhile, there was some action on cybersecurity in the telecommunications realm this week.
Netscout's DDoS report
The security vendor Netscout announced findings from its latest semi-annual DDoS Threat Intelligence Report.
The distributed denial of service (DDoS) data found that attacks on the wireless telecommunications industry are increasing due to 5G wireless to the home.
“The growth of subscribers and 5G wireless to the home, for both mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has grown at an incredible pace from 12.6 million in 2019 to a projected 1.6 billion by the end of 2023, a staggering 12,720% increase,” stated the report. “This growth brings with it a vibrant playground for adversaries to conscript 5G-connected devices into attacks. It also presents an opportunity for attacks to target more types of devices and network access points than ever before.”
DDoS attacks on the wireless telecommunications industry in general grew 79% since 2020, which equates to 20% of all DDoS attacks on any industry and second only to attacks on wired telecommunications carriers. With 80% to 90% of all DDoS attacks sourced from and directed at devices on wireline networks, the increase in attacks on wireless coincide with the continued adoption of 5G to the home. “Historically, these attacks are motivated by the gaming industry or underground gambling associated with esports,” stated the Netscout report.
Orange Cyberdefense
Orange Cyberdefense, a subsidiary of Orange, launched its latest recruitment campaign, which will run until the end of 2023. It aims to attract and recruit around 800 professionals in the nine European countries where it operates: France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Orange Cyberdefense already employs 3,000 people to meet the cybersecurity challenges of companies of all sizes.
Positions are available across the entire organization, from analyst roles in operational teams to architects, engineers, consultants, and even ethical hackers.
Orange Cyberdefense ended the last financial year with overall growth of 14% across its activities, achieving sales of €977 million ($1.06 billion). More generally, its revenues have increased fivefold over the past eight years. It has 8,700 customers worldwide and protects them across the entire threat lifecycle in more than 160 countries.
“Our goal is to create the largest community of cyber experts in Europe. This is a huge challenge, especially with the talent shortage the whole industry is experiencing,” said Hugues Foulon, CEO of Orange Cyberdefense, in a statement.