Published January 1, 2025
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The challenges facing telcos in cybersecurity today are unprecedented. The rapid growth of broadband access, IoT adoption, and hybrid work has created a perfect storm – networks are more connected than ever, but also more exposed. Cyber threats are not just a technical challenge; they are an operational and reputational risk.
Through our partnerships with telcos globally, BlackDice has gained deep insights into what it takes to build cyber-resilient networks. These lessons don’t just apply to telecoms, they are relevant for any industry seeking scalable, effective cybersecurity solutions.
You can’t protect what you can’t see. A common challenge we’ve observed is the lack of visibility into connected devices and network activity. For example, during a deployment with a European telco serving 200 users, we identified over 953,015 threats in a single month. Many of these threats – such as command-and-control traffic – would have gone unnoticed without device-level intelligence.
Key takeaway: Cybersecurity solutions must provide granular visibility into network traffic and device behaviour. This allows organisations to detect anomalies before they escalate into major incidents.
One of the most overlooked issues in network security is junk data – unnecessary traffic generated by malicious or misconfigured devices. In our deployments, junk data accounted for a significant portion of bandwidth usage, draining resources and increasing operational costs. For a telco with 1.5 million subscribers, we calculated annual savings of $39 million simply by eliminating junk traffic.
Key takeaway: Reducing junk data not only improves network performance but also delivers substantial cost savings. It’s an easy win for any organisation looking to optimise its cybersecurity investment.
Traditional security measures – such as signature-based detection – are no longer enough. The scale and complexity of modern cyber threats require a proactive approach. In our partnerships, AI has been instrumental in filtering, prioritising, and preventing threats. For instance, our AI models analyse traffic patterns to predict and block phishing attempts, adware, and malware before they reach the user.
Key takeaway: AI enables organisations to move from reactive defence to predictive prevention, making networks more resilient and reducing the burden on human security teams.
The lessons we’ve learned in telco deployments are applicable across industries. Whether you’re running a corporate IT environment or managing public infrastructure, these principles hold true:
Cybersecurity is no longer the sole responsibility of IT teams. It requires a collective effort across organisations, industries, and governments. Telcos, as gatekeepers of the digital world, have a unique role to play in setting the standard for network resilience. By leveraging insights from real-world deployments, we can build a more secure digital ecosystem for everyone.
At BlackDice, we are committed to helping our partners achieve this goal – one network at a time. If we’ve learned one thing, it’s that resilience is not a destination, it’s an ongoing process of adaptation and innovation. And it starts with the simple, often overlooked steps that make the biggest difference.