An overview of security challenges in communication networks

Abstract

The ongoing transition towards a networked society requires reliable and secure network infrastructure and services. As networks evolve from simple point to point systems towards complex, software-defined, ultra-high capacity and reach, and distributed cloud environments, new security challenges emerge. The EU-funded RECODIS project aims at coordinating and fostering research collaboration in Europe on disaster resiliency in communication networks. One of the disaster types, considered by RECODIS Working Group (WG) 4, are deliberate human-made attacks aimed at gaining unauthorized access to the network or disrupting the service. In order to develop methods for increasing network security in the presence of attacks, it is crucial to first identify the security vulnerabilities and attack methods that exploit them, as well as the capabilities and shortcomings of existing security schemes. To this end, the members of RECODIS WG4 performed a comprehensive overview of attack methods and security approaches from the literature. This overview covers the security vulnerabilities inherent to the underlying physical layer, the implications of software-defined networking to security, and security challenges in cloud networks spanning geographically distributed data centers.