Instances of supply chain threats are common including tampering with chipsets, vendors releasing devices in an insecure state, and government decisions impacting supply chain resilience. This highlights the significance of understanding how products are developed and introduced into the ecosystem and managed throughout their lifecycle. The software supply chain is arguably more complicated. According to the 2018 DevSecOps Community Survey, there was a 55% increase in breaches caused by vulnerable open-source software.
A failure to secure the supply chain can result in erosion of brand and trust, regulatory action, and high costs to the operator. The onus is on telecom operators to examine the products, toolsets, and technologies that form a part of their infrastructure from the security perspective.The reactive aspect requires getting the basics right. Negative customer experiences stem most commonly from incomplete network coverage, uncompetitive tariffs, and bad customer support. Essentially, these three variables are the fundamental pillars of the customer experience.
The proactive aspect focuses on how operators position themselves in the broader value chain —multiple networks, numerous devices, and several service providers. Collectively, these three aspects represent a multi-tiered opportunity: not only more users (and SIM cards) but also more uses (spanning multiple devices) and more recurrent usage (of OTT and other services). This proactive aspect of the equation is about embracing complexity.
Mobile Network Operators specifically and telecom operators, in general, must gather, process, and store customer data to operate efficiently. Privacy concerns have triggered onerous regulations like GDPR in several locations. An inability to understand these laws or poor implementation can curb the flow of data and curtail the operator’s overall view of their network. Obviously, this can trigger inefficiencies for the network and create openings for attackers to go undetected and pose a threat to the privacy and security of citizen’s data.
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