Telco Systems Unveils NFV CyberGuard, addresses SDN, NFV security vulnerabilities

Telco Systems, a global provider of innovative SDN & NFV, multi-service Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and MPLS edge solutions, has unveiled a new cyber-protection solution to address a number of security vulnerabilities associated with deploying SDN and NFV technologies and infrastructures.

The deployment of SDN and NFV technologies offers telecommunications service providers and other network operators numerous operational and business benefits, although, at the same time, exposes service providers to a range of “IT-like” security vulnerabilities.

Unlike traditional telecoms networks, which are closed infrastructures protected by readily-available and mature security solutions, SDN and NFV networks are software-based and designed to be open and controlled remotely. This creates inherent security vulnerabilities, including ongoing threats of hacking, malware and other cyber-security related attacks.

The new NFV CyberGuard solution consists of advanced network monitoring sensors embedded on Telco Systems’ CloudMetro virtualization platform, a big data analytics engine and an SDN controller running on Telco Systems’ EdgeGenie Orchestrator.

NFV CyberGuard’s advanced network monitoring sensors continuously gather application-level session information from across the entire network and organize an ongoing database of expected network behavior.

This information is then fed into a big data analytics engine, which in real-time monitors and alerts for anomalous network behaviors or activities, such as Advance Persistent Threats (APTs), flooding and direct denial of service (DDoS) attempts on the network function virtualization infrastructure (NFVI), remote access threats and specific attacks on the application (VMs) plane and spoofing attacks on all open network layers.

When anomalies are identified, NFV CyberGuard instantaneously activates the SDN controller to apply predefined policies and take immediate network-wide action to neutralize threats before they cause damage.

By running NFV CyberGuard as a network function virtualization (NFV) from the CloudMetro device, which is deployed at the network edge at the closest point to all endpoints, the solution provides security professionals at service providers with advanced detection forensics and a real-time analysis of network threats, complete visibility of the entire network and the ability to apply cyber-security policies and efforts to the entire infrastructure.

“The benefits of SDN and NFV are clear, although at the same time, the security risks associated with these technologies also need to be addressed,” explained Ariel Efrati, CEO of Telco Systems. “We are proud to be applying a unique usage of our new NFV innovations in our new cyber-protection solution to address the security vulnerabilities enabled by these two technologies.”

A virtualized version of Telco Systems’ new cyber-protection solution – called vCyberGuard – is also available and will allow service providers to sell security-as-a-service offerings to their enterprise customers. vCyberGuard runs as TelcoApp from Telco Systems’ CloudMetro virtualization device and enables service providers to offer their enterprise customers value added IT management and security services. Through Telco Systems’ Open Edge Alliance partnership ecosystem vendors can create virtualized services of their device-based solutions.

Telco Systems will be demonstrating NFV CyberGuard this week at the SDN & OpenFlow World Congress in Dusseldorf, Germany at booth #37. To schedule a meeting with Telco Systems at this event, please click here.

Telco Systems will also be conducting a webinar together with Light Reading on the topic of Protecting Your SDN and NFV Network from Cyber Security Vulnerabilities with Full Perimeter Defense on Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 10:00am EDT. To register for this webinar, please click here.