Cyberattacks on internet-connected devices continue to rise at an alarming rate due to poor security protections and cybercriminals use of automated tools to exploit these vulnerabilities, according to the latest Nokia Threat Intelligence Report.

The report found that Internet-connected, or IoT, devices now make up roughly 33% of infected devices, up from about 16% in 2019. The report’s findings are based on data aggregated from monitoring network traffic on more than 150 million devices globally where Nokia's NetGuard Endpoint Security product is deployed.

Adoption of IoT devices, from smart home security monitoring systems to drones and medical devices, is expected to continue growing as consumers and enterprises move to take advantage of the high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and fundamentally new networking capabilities that 5G mobile networks enable, according to the report.

The rate of success in infecting IoT devices depends on the visibility of the devices to the internet, according to the report. In networks where devices are routinely assigned public facing internet IP addresses, a high infection rate is seen. In networks where carrier-grade Network Address Translation is used, the infection rate is considerably reduced because the vulnerable devices are not visible to network scanning.

THE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS COVID-19-THEMED CYBERCRIMINAL CAMPAIGNS AIMED AT EXPLOITING USER DATA

The Threat Intelligence Report also reveals there is no let up in cybercriminals using the COVID-19 pandemic to try to steal personal data through a variety of types of malware. One in particular is disguised as a “Coronavirus Map” application – mimicking the legitimate and authoritative Coronavirus Map issued by Johns Hopkins University – to take advantage of the public’s demand for accurate information about COVID-19 infections, deaths and transmissions.

But the bogus application is used to plant malware on victims’ computers to exploit personal data. “Cybercriminals are playing on people’s fears and are seeing this situation as an opportunity to promote their agendas,” the report says. The report urges the public to install applications only from trusted app stores, like Google and Apple.

Bhaskar Gorti, Nokia Software President and Chief Digital Officer, said: “The sweeping changes that are taking place in the 5G ecosystem, with even more 5G networks being deployed around the world as we move to 2021, open ample opportunities for malicious actors to take advantage of vulnerabilities in IoT devices. This report reinforces not only the critical need for consumers and enterprises to step up their own cyber protection practices, but for IoT device producers to do the same.”

Commenting on this, Boris Cipot, senior security engineer at Synopsys, said "The Nokia Threat Report is a welcome confirmation for security professionals that mobile platforms are not something that can be disregarded as a risk. If we think about it, today we have more processing power and memory in our smartphones than we did just a few years ago on our laptops and desktops. Most individuals now jump on their phones or tablet to browse the internet or read their emails. Use cases have shifted from traditional desktop/laptop to mobile device and as such, it is normal that cyberthreats have followed this trend. Nevertheless, that is not to say that individuals should disregard standard PC threats. While mobile threats are rising, this does not imply that PC threats are decreasing. On the contrary, these threats are growing in number too.

"In fact, we are now entering a new era of technology; that is the 5G era, which brings along with it another set of threats. New threats are to be expected with new technology. One has to be prepared for them and to take appropriate action to build resilience. The world of IoT is evidence that we are still a long way from achieving this. Breached baby monitors, video cameras, cryptocurrency mining… all of these are recent incidents we have faced and continue to face. Whether it is the Android platform or the RTOS of an IoT device that is under attack, the root of the matter typically comes down to vulnerabilities in the software. Therefore, secure development and the Security by Design principle needs to be at the foundation of every software development process. The use of tools such as SAST, SCA or IAST are mandatory to keep the whole ecosystem safe. The reason being that even the smallest security hole delivered by the smallest application in a mobile phone or PC could be responsible for a whole device becoming exploitable.“

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Further Reading:

• Read the Nokia Threat Intelligence Report @ www.nokia.com/threat-intelligence-report
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Watch Nokia's video 'Vulnerability of IoT Devices' @ youtu.be/ume8OldqvUY
• Watch Nokia's video '5G Can Help Secure Devices' @ youtu.be/XghAvFgTv2k
• Follow Nokia on Twitter @ twitter.com/nokia

EE, part of BT Group, today announced it has signed an agreement with Nokia to build an industry-first nationwide 4G LTE Air-to-Ground network for the emergency services across Great Britain. The pioneering new 4G network will enable uninterrupted high speed broadband coverage for emergency service personnel working above ground from 500 feet up to 10,000 feet.

As part of the agreement, EE and Nokia will enable mission-critical network coverage for emergency services that will be the world’s first use case utilising commercial 4G LTE broadband services in its field.

THE ROLE OF FIELD SERVICE IN MOBILE BROADBAND FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES

The 4G LTE Air-to-Ground network will provide seamless connectivity between ground operations and air, connecting people, sensors, aircraft and helicopters with the highest security and reliability. Over 300,000 emergency service personnel will benefit from the Emergency Services Network (ESN) designed to facilitate uninterrupted coverage allowing emergency services the capability to communicate with their airborne colleagues.

As part of the agreement, EE will provide the active network equipment for a full reference facility, and an initial seven site trial network. Following the trial, EE will deploy the network equipment in over 80 Home Office acquired cell sites across the UK. Nokia will provide design support, network equipment, installation and commissioning services to ensure timely delivery of the ESN 4G LTE Air-to-Ground network.

The first trial of the 4G LTE Air-to-Ground network will take place over the coming months in North Wales and London, enabling EE, Nokia and the Home Office to test the hardware capability over different terrain along with the hardware deployment process, the software capability, and the operational support of the complete Air-to-Ground service, prior to the roll out of the final Air-to-Ground network.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Nokia to build a first-in-class and ground-breaking 4G Air-to-Ground network for emergency services across the UK. Our deployment of this reinforces our network leadership as the UK’s biggest and fastest mobile network, and harnesses Nokia’s deep expertise in network equipment and installation of an Air-to-Ground solution,” says Richard Harrap, Managing Director ESN at EE.

“With the help of this first ever Air-to-Ground network using commercial LTE, emergency services personnel will be able to rely on uninterrupted communications nationwide. This project and its deployment are a perfect example of the type of innovative solutions Nokia, together with our customers, can provide to the public sector”, says Cormac Whelan, CEO UK & Ireland at Nokia.

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Mobile Internet @ www.fieldservicenews.com/mobile-internet
• Read more about Nokia @ www.nokia.com
• Read more about BT Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/bt-field-service
• Read more about BT @ www.bt.com

 

The Field Service News editorial team offer analysis on the stories circling in the service sector...

 

As IFS finally completed its full acquisition of Astea, Mark Glover ponders the challenges ahead for Marne Martin, who is tasked with overseeing the transition...

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It’s not new news, but IFS finally completing its acquisition of Astea, following the announcement the pair had signed a definitive agreement in October, meant a fresh press release pinging into Field Service News’ inbox confirming a deal that many had been predicting for a while. 

As is the form for acquisition announcements the release took a postive angle, explaining what benefits the merger will bring to IFS and its customer base. “With the acquisition of Astea, IFS has strengthened and deepened its ability to help customers innovate in field service and service management,” affirmed Nicole French, VP and Analyst at Constellation Research in a quote taken from the release. Delivering innovation to its customer base falls sqaurely on the shoulders of IFS’ Marne Martin, who is set to assume leadership of Astea, taking the reins from Zack Bergreen, who founded the company in 1979. 

In an interview with Martin, just after the confirmation announcement in December, I asked how the dynamic between the pair will operate through the transitionary period. However, in response she reveals the pair could have been working together seven years ago. “I’ve known him since 2013, when I tried to convince him to merge with ServicePower,” she recalls.

“Customers reach out to him [Bergreen] and that’s a great conduit because he and I can compare notes around customers.Hopefully they’re hearing hearing the messages that we’re trying to speak to them about.”

Martin is no stranger to acquisitions, being at the helm of ServicePower when it merged with IFS in 2017, but three years on and this time absorbing a company that has a dedicated, loyal and expectant customer-base, the task ahead could be one of her biggest challenges to-date.

The full interview with Marne Martin will be published Thursday 5 February.

 

... and Field Service News’ Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, also reflects on what the big stories in the news are for him...

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For me the most exciting story that leaps out of our news round-up this month is that Nokia are entering the race to solve the headaches of last mile delivery.

This story albeit just a tempting snippet and a glimpse of a potential solution will come as very welcome news to all field service providers as the challenges of inner-city congestion are just set to worsen as we enter the third decade of the twentieth century.

Not only does the introduction of a company with a history of pioneering innovation entering this arena to solve what I fear may be the biggest challenge of the coming years for field service companies bode well for overcoming this challenge. They are also looking to fix it with cute little delivery robots.

Finally, the year 2020 is living up to its billing of being ‘the future’. I might even get the personal jet pack I’ve been dreaming of since I was 11 at some point in the next few years as well!

In terms, of industry trends I think that the move by WebFleet to introduce a sustainability initiative is not only smart but also a likely sign of things to come. Indeed, I was discussing this exact topic with Rich Agostinelli’s the new CEO of ByBox recently (look out for that discussion in an upcoming edition of the Field Service Podcast) and I think we will see plenty of companies across the next year tapping into the ‘green dollar.’

As I mentioned to Rich, it may be that I am just a bit of a cynical old man, but I think the true driver behind much of the moves towards more sustainable operations will still inevitably be economic rather than some sudden shift in the corporate mindset to save the world.

However, given the current high focus on the well intentioned, but somewhat naive actions of the likes of Extinction Rebellion and their teen messiah Greta Thunberg, the societal pressure for businesses to at least be seen to be focussing on green issues are moving from huge to enormous. However, the fact is that solutions like ByBox’s overnight delivery services ultimately reduce costs and increase efficiency within a field service operation, whilst simultaneously reducing carbon emissions due to less idling.

So we get to improve our bottom line and save the planet from impending doom at the same time. Now that’s got to be classed as a win-win in anyone’s book?

The only question that remains is ‘will we be able to play snake on those cute little Nokia robots?

Small ADR delivered trial goods in trial at NOKIA event.

Jan Van Veen, Managing Director, moreMomentum explains how field service companies can thrive in a disruptive industry...

The key challenge

In the manufacturing sector, a popular topic is the potential disruption, driven by:

• New technologies like artificial intelligence, Internet of things and augmented reality
• New technology specific to the equipment we offer
• Changing customers
• Emerging markets
• New entrants into the industry

And the potentially disruptive new value offerings, operating models and business models which could emerge.

As manufacturers, we run the risk of missing the boat, so the question is: Disrupt or Be Disrupted? Most of the companies will not be able to disrupt but certainly, need to know how to thrive in a disruptive world.

In my view, the following is required to be successful:

1. Full understanding of disruption and its potential impact for the business
2. Clarity on what needs to change in your business to thrive in a disruptive industry
3. The high pace of continuous change to innovate and execute

However, too often I see misconceptions about disruption and disruptive innovation, a lack of clarity on what needs to change and too slow a pace of change.

By consequence, manufacturers tend to make inadequate assessments and develop inadequate strategies, allowing leading competitors and new entrants into the industry to take the lead.

In this article, I will focus on what disruptive innovation is, the impact and how to prevent typical pitfalls.

What is disruption?

Disruptive innovation is a nasty beast. We have seen quite a few strong brands (almost) disappearing because of disruption, like Kodak, Nokia, IBM computers and Polaroid to mention a few.

For clarity, I’d like to categorize innovation along two dimensions:

• Impact: mainstream versus disruptive
• Scope: Customer value versus internal capabilities

Mainstream innovation

Mainstream innovations annually improve the value of products and services (including the related internal capabilities) as expected by the market. The aim is to increase our value and margins by better serving our best clients.

These innovations can be small and incremental or more radical.

Examples of incremental mainstream innovations are improved fuel consumption of cars engines, improved uptime of the equipment we sell through more reliable equipment and better maintenance.

Examples of more radical mainstream innovations are cars going electric and our services becoming more predictive and performance basedExamples of more radical mainstream innovations are cars going electric and our services becoming more predictive and performance-based.

Manufacturers that fall behind the competition, have not been disrupted yet The majority of the manufacturing companies are too slow in driving the mainstream innovation and see leading competitors achieving higher growth rates, higher margins, more service – recurring and stable – revenue and higher customer loyalties being ahead of the game. As Jack Welsh said: “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”

Disruptive innovation

Disruptive innovations break with the ongoing and upward trend of improving value. There are two ways of disruptive innovation: offering lower value at a lower price for the low-end market or offering lower-barrier solution opening new market segments which have not been served so far.

At the early stages, disruptive products and services serve a small niche, often at a lower value level.

These solutions will follow a mainstream innovation journey, increasing value and price. Gradually the products or services become a viable alternative for a larger portion of the markets.

Examples of low-end disruptions are the low-cost airlines, which offer flights at lower service levels and lower prices. This is quite attractive for business travellers who do not want to pay a premium price for meals and convenience.

One example of new market disruptions in which a new product or service serves other needs are the PC’s, which after some time started competing against the mainframes. Another example is salesforce.com, which offered so much more flexibility and lower cost of ownership than the traditional on-premise CRM systems.

Innovating internal capabilities

New technology enables us to develop new organizational capabilities.

For example, the low-cost airlines have adopted quite different operating models which allow them to consistently fly at much lower cost and hence maintain good margins at a low price level. For service operations, we see many manufacturers developing capabilities like remote service, connectivity, big-data and algorithms and predicting failures.

These, in themselves, are not value propositions and have no value for customers. However, these can be crucial capabilities for new service propositions.

Innovating external (customer) value

For maximum impact focus on customer value, not on capabilities

The real impact to drive competitive value is by addressing unmet needs or barriers to use new technology or solutions with a new product, services or integrated solutions. Examples are:

• How Rolls Royce offers a zero-disruption proposition for aerospace engines in which clients only pay per flight hour
• How MAN reduces fuel consumption by improving driving behaviour
• How Caterpillar helps managing a construction plant and will ensure at every stage of the construction the right number of the required equipment is available.

Besides the services and products, we can also increase value by enhancing customer experience, our brand and (lower) price levels.

Why does this matter?

At the early stages of a disruption, incumbents may see the new products and services entering their market.

However, compared to business-as-usual, the new products and services are relevant for a small niche only, the market volumes are small and the added value often is much lower. Their best clients are not interested.

At the early stages of a disruption, incumbents may see the new products and services entering their market.Above that, there are so many trends and new innovations, it is hard to predict which ones will become successful. This, together with the pressure to optimize top-line and bottom line and adequately serving our best clients, means it is easy to ignore the signs and consider them as irrelevant.

Disruption most often comes from outside your industry

Historically it appears that often incumbents beat new entrants when it’s about mainstream innovations, as they will defend their main business with valuable clients. However, when it’s about disruptive innovation, new entrants disrupt the industry and incumbents only start to respond (in panic) when it’s too late.

The new entrants have built the knowledge, capabilities and the brand which makes it tough for incumbents to catch up in time.

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