Secure Voice Communications

Secure Voice Communications

The Missing Piece in Mobile
Security


Tony Fascenda, Founder, CEO, KoolSpan Inc.


Secure Customer Access

Secure Machine to Machine

Secure Mobile Voice

Secure Networks

Secure
PC/Laptops

Security Landscape: Wide Open, Complex

71% of large enterprise IT managers say


IT security solutions are too complex

-

2008 Mobile Trust Survey

IT Infrastructure

•
Multiple Problems to solve

–
Trusted vs. un
-
trusted users (login management)

–
Network Access (24 x 7 access)

–
Hackers, viruses, malware

–
Firewalls: packet inspection

–
Intrusion detection / Intrusion prevention

–
Patch Management

–
Standards / RFCs

•
“Box for every problem”

–
900+ vendors for IT infrastructure

–
“Defense in depth”

–
Everything must work together

•
Never ending series of problems to solve

Nearly 70%

of all large enterprise IT managers say mobile phones are used to
discuss business topics considered confidential.
-

2008 Mobile Trust Survey

The Mobile Security Threat

Data vs. Voice

Focus

•
IT Engineers may spend entire career protecting data

•
Mobile Phones have two problems: data & voice

•
When it comes to voice, the user is left naked

•
Most important information is that which is spoken

•
Many security conscious companies prohibit

discussing sensitive data on mobile

•
Voice calls operate on the PSTN and possibly IP networks

•
ROI on call interception is very high

•
Difficult to quantify because this is usually a risk not publicized

•
Security is difficult to implement/easy to crack


“Vodafone, Ericsson Get Hung Up In
Greece's Phone
-
Tap Scandal”

June 2006

“Phone Taps in Italy Spur Rush
Toward Encryption”

April 2007

“Taliban Terrorises RAF Families”

August 2007

“Silently tapping into a private cellphone
conversation is no longer a high
-
tech trick
reserved for spies and the FBI…cellular
snooping may soon be affordable enough
for your next
-
door neighbor.”

February 2008

Mobile Voice Breaches

Gaining Attention

Operator A

Operator B

Operator C

Hacker Exploit of Lawful

Call Monitoring Taps

Access at
Network Facility

Tower spoofing

Illegal
Monitoring

Four Typical Attack Vectors

How Is A Cellular Call Intercepted?

What Would it Take for

Someone to Intercept Your

Mobile Communications?

Just Google it!

•
100,000s of hits

•
Large community

•
Illegal, but vibrant
marketplace

•
Many solutions for
law enforcement,
but ‘hijacked’ by
bad guys

Mobile Phone Points of Attack

•
Only protected part of communication is between
handset and base station

•
Switched
-
connection

•
Mandatory to bridge different phone types

•
Cleartext available anywhere between base
-
stations

•
At either operator’s switch

•
Anywhere in the cloud that connects operators

•
Impossible to detect wiretap

Threat Envelope

Impact of Compromise:

•
Operational Security

•
Direct Financial Loss

•
Intellectual Property (IP)

•
Physical Safety Risk

•
Cyber Security Risk

•
Reputational / Brand Risk

•
Legal Risk

•
Stock Risk

What’s At Risk?

Mobile Voice Threat Envelope:

What’s Changed

•
1945: Most of government secrets were held by government

•
2009: Most government secrets held by private industry

•
Internationally, boundaries between state and criminal espionage
blurred

•
Increased Competition

•
Foreign Nationals: no risk, no fear!

•
Wider availability of network access

•
Attacks, easier and easier to accomplish

•
Naive CEOs, CFOs, CSOs

•
Only companies damaged by economic espionage take threat
seriously!

•
ROI on mobile intercept is HIGH!

Smartphone Market Eclipses Computer Market

Source: Wall Street Journal

Smartphones are new Laptops

•
Susceptible to intercept but more
probably to being left behind at airport
security

•
Mobile device loss results in:

–
Potential exposure to enterprise / network etc.

–
Loss of valuable data / trade secrets

–
Loss of productivity from user

•
Smartphones handle both voice and
data

•
Data often exchanged with enterprise

•
Stored in phone or in plug
-
in memory
cards

•
Not enough to protect the ‘pipe’
—

you
must protect and secure the data at all
times

“More than 10,000 laptops are
reported lost at the 36 largest
airports in US each week. Only
35% ever reclaimed”

-

engadget


“More than 250,000 mobile phones
and handheld devices will be left
behind at U.S. airports alone this
year and only 25
-
30 percent will be
reunited with their owners”

-

Technet.microsoft.com


“100,000 devices left on London
Underground each year”

-

British Authorities



Hurdles to “Enterprise Ready” Smartphones

InformationWeek

Cover Story, October 2008

“Unfortunately, IT directors’ ability to manage these
devices as corporate assets,
while controlling the
data and applications that run on them, hasn’t kept
pace
.”

~

InformationWeek



Business applications for Smartphones are
proliferating


Increasingly, many business people choose
to “leave their laptop behind”


Vulnerable to eavesdropping on

phone calls

as well as attacks on

the data applications

Challenges to Mobile

Communication Security

YES

44%

NO

56%


Are you aware of any
compromises to

voice communications

on cellular/mobile networks?

~ Mobile Trust Survey, 2007

Wide Gap: Problem Recognition

and Solution Implementation

Why the Unmet need in

cellular encryption?

Would consider an easy, cost
-
effective solution

72%

14%

Already deployed

14%

Among Respondents Interested In
Secure Voice Solution (58% of Total)

Planning a deployment

~ Mobile Trust Survey, 2007

Because…

•
It’s hard to do

•
It’s difficult to manage

•
Manufacturers don’t
provide security hooks

•
Enterprises don’t yet
realize the threat

Wide Gap: Problem Recognition

and Solution Implementation

Phones are Insecure

•
Phones aren’t managed by IT Department

•
Phones don’t use IT infrastructure

•
Phones can connect to anyone, anytime

•
Phones not designed to protect your data

–
Result: mobile voice is insecure

–
Result: mobile data is insecure

OEM Over
-
Exposure

Data Port

GSM

CDMA

SIM Card

SD Card

Bluetooth


Wi
-
Fi

Edge/3G

CSD

GPRS

Applications

E
-
mail

Internet

CRM

Data

Etc., etc.



•
Security Issues are
pervasive
within

device

•
Dealing with all of them is
next
-
to
-
impossible

•
No OEM has yet to adopt
a platform security solution

•
FIPS and other certs?

•
Way too many entry points
to adequately address the
issues

WinMo

Symbian

Blackberry

Linux

Android

Application Implementation

•
Customer Application Example

–
Access to real
-
time data vital

–
Data is important to both customer and company

–
Secure access is vital

–
Data
-
in
-
motion + Data
-
at
-
rest must be secure

•
Developer Implementation?

–
What’s available to me?

–
What’s best practice?

–
How do I design, develop, test and certify?

Application Implementation

Customer Application Example

Authentication &
Encryption Solutions

Biometric Solutions

FobLock

Good Technology

GoodLink Mobile

Defense

Mobile Armor

Data Armor

Palm

Security 5p

PointSec

RSA Security

SecurID

SafeBoot

Device Encryption

TealPoint Software

TealLock

Management & Security
Solutions

Credant Mobile Guardian

IBM Tivoli Configuration
Manager

iAnywhereAfaria

Intellisync Mobile Systems
Management

Trust Digital TRUST
Enterprise Secure

NovellZenworks Handheld
Management

Transmission & Security
Solutions

Aventail

Workplace

F5

Firepass

IBM

WebSphere Everyplace
Access (WEA)

Meetinghouse

AEGIS WLAN Security
Solution

Certicom

movianVPN

Mergic

Mergic VPN

Nortel Networks

Alteon SSL VPN

WorldNet21

anthaVPN

Cryptography/PKI
Toolkits

Certicom

Security Builder

Crypto

Copera

AESLib

Diversinet

Passport

RSA Security

BSAFE

Ntru Cryptosystems

Security Toolkit

Messaging/Data
Solutions

Good Technology

GoodLink

Notify

NofifyLink Enterprise
Edition

Intellisync

Mobile Suite

SEVEN

System SEVEN

Visto

Mobile Access Solution

Extended Systems

OneBridge Mobile

Groupware

My Solution!

Application Implementation

Customer Application Example

•
Multiple Solutions are really multiple
problems

•
Multiple instances of
same/competing libraries

•
Resource Utilization

•
Host Processor Performance

•
Platform Security is better approach

Secure Voice Issues

•
Voice must be secured between two users

–
no intervening infrastructure involved

•
Users may not belong to same organization

–
how to manage credentials?

•
Peer
-
to
-
peer authentication

•
Platforms are not consistent
(WinMo/Symbian/RIM/iPhone etc.)

–
Audio re
-
routing issues difficult on Symbian, next to impossible
on WinMo; not available on RIM

•
Connecting two incompatible platforms is not easy


Evaluating Solutions to

Mobile Communication Security

Implementing Security

•
Three areas of expertise

(in descending importance)

1.
Key Management

2.
Authentication

3.
Encryption

•
Each have particular issues to be handled

–
Multiple solutions for each abound

–
But…all components must be carefully integrated

•
Platform vs. point
-
specific solution
s

Key
Management

• generation

• distribution

• utilization

• storage

• revocation

Authent
-
ication

Encryption

•
Fine mesh system

•
Carefully tuned

•
Fully integrated

Need for end
-
to
-
end Security

•
Connection

–
Hub
-
and
-
spoke?

–
Peer
-
to
-
Peer?

–
Conferencing?

•
Security

–
End
-
to
-
end?

–
Managed?

•
Data Security

–
In Motion?

–
At Rest?

•
Key escrow

•
Lawful Intercept

–
Mandated capability

Networks themselves must be considered insecure

In a global context, IT infrastructure approach ill
-
suited

Data must be available only to designated parties

Access to secure data must be easily manageable

Not good enough just to have a “VPN”

Data must be protected at all times: at rest, in USB tokens,

memory cards etc.

Securing the pipe is only a partial solution

Need to support lawful access without divulging
underlying technology

Examples of three popular platforms

•
Blackberry / WinMo / iPhone

–
Three distinctly different operating systems

–
Why do enterprises like each?

–
How have each handled security?

–
What are their risks?

Blackberry

•
Winning in the Enterprise/Gov’t

–
Because of Email Integration & Security

–
Widely adopted throughout the world

•
E
-
mail handled by BES
–

adequate
security

•
Other applications don’t have security

•
Voice security not addressed

Windows Mobile

•
Highly integrated into Enterprise

–
Easily understood and managed by IT administrators

•
Recent efforts at improving security
infrastructure

–
Improved methods for device connectivity

–
No consistent method for application security

•
Authentication/Security

–
Left up to individual application designer

–
Key Management mystery; often poorly managed

–
Voice Security left unaddressed

•
Result

–
Device often packed with multiple separate instances of security
technologies that often bring with them more vulnerabilities than
the solution they provide

–
No service opportunity for managed security

iPhone

•
Easy
-
to
-
use, consistent interface

•
Not fully integrated into enterprise

•
Rapidly gaining market share

•
Powerful, elegant, flexible

•
App Store

•
Voice security unaddressed

•
Voice and Data security common problem

–
Both must be addressed

–
Ensure business voice calls are encrypted

•
Networks are un
-
trusted pipes

•
End
-
to
-
end security is preferred

–
Data must be secured at all times: in motion, at rest

–
Security must persist no matter what

•
Educate senior staff on risks

•
Ensure that employees understand the nature of mobile phone
intercepts


Best Practices for Mobile

Voice & Data Security

•
Platform security makes sense

•
Use standards
-
based approach wherever possible

•
Integrate data
-
at
-
rest, data
-
in
-
motion security

•
Common framework for both transport and application security

•
Use single, well thought out integrated Key Management,
Authentication and Encryption solution supporting multiple
contexts

•
Implement in plug
-
in hardware

–
Adaptable to any modern handset

–
Secure hardware resolves all security issues

–
Software bridges adaptability

–
Best of both worlds!

–
Management must be secure at all times

Best Practices for Mobile

Voice & Data Security

Thank You


Tony Fascenda

KoolSpan Inc.

4962 Fairmont Ave.

Bethesda, MD. 20814

Phone: 240 880
-
4402

E
-
mail: tfascenda@koolspan.com


http://www.koolspan.com