By Mike Gala, Andrew Yun; Comcast
Network security has been one of the top priorities for the industry since the transition from analog to digital. It is a combination of prevention, mitigation, remediation, and customer notification technologies that help reduce the risk of data loss, theft, and sabotage. [1] The landscape has also changed drastically recently due to the pandemic, geo-political instability, and evolving federal and state regulatory requirements and standards. Network security threats are constantly evolving as well with threat actors looking to exploit vulnerabilities to gain the initial access required to laterally move across the network, and ultimately exfiltrate sensitive information or impact the environment. The recent CISA alert AA22- 158A [2] of state-sponsored cyber actors exploits of network providers and devices is an example of such threats potentially targeting modern networks. These actors exploited known vulnerabilities, primarily common vulnerabilities, and exposures (CVEs) associated with network devices to target and compromise major telecommunications companies and network service providers since 2020.