Tag Archive for: wireless

Next-gen wireless networks could be designed with built-in defenses against ‘metasurface-in-the-middle’ attack — ScienceDaily

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Crafty hackers can make a tool to eavesdrop on some 6G wireless signals in as little as five minutes using office paper, an inkjet printer, a metallic foil transfer and a laminator.

The wireless security hack was discovered by engineering researchers from Rice University and Brown University, who will present their findings and demonstrate the attack this week in San Antonio at ACM WiSec 2022, the Association for Computing Machinery’s annual conference on security and privacy in wireless and mobile networks.

“Awareness of a future threat is the first step to counter that threat,” said study co-author Edward Knightly, Rice’s Sheafor-Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The frequencies that are vulnerable to this attack aren’t in use yet, but they are coming and we need to be prepared.”

In the study, Knightly, Brown University engineering Professor Daniel Mittleman and colleagues showed an attacker could easily make a sheet of office paper covered with 2D foil symbols — a metasurface — and use it to redirect part of a 150 gigahertz “pencil beam” transmission between two users.

They dubbed the attack “Metasurface-in-the-Middle” as a nod to both the hacker’s tool and the way it is wielded. Metasurfaces are thin sheets of material with patterned designs that manipulate light or electromagnetic waves. “Man-in-the-middle” is a computer security industry classification for attacks in which an adversary secretly inserts themself between two parties.

The 150 gigahertz frequency is higher than is used in today’s 5G cellular or Wi-Fi networks. But Knightly said wireless carriers are looking to roll out 150 gigahertz and similar frequencies known as terahertz waves or millimeter waves over the next decade.

“Next-generation wireless will use high frequencies and pencil beams to support wide-band applications like virtual reality and autonomous vehicles,” said Knightly, who will present the research with co-author Zhambyl Shaikhanov, a graduate student in his lab.

In the study, the researchers use the names Alice and Bob to refer to the two people whose communications are hacked. The eavesdropper is called Eve.

To mount the attack, Eve first…

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Eavesdroppers can hack 6G wireless frequency with DIY metasurface, research team demonstrates

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The researchers said they hope the study will dispel a common misperception in the wireless industry that higher frequencies are inherently secure.

“People have been quoted saying millimeter-wave frequencies are ‘covert’ and ‘highly confidential’ and that they ‘provide security,’” Shaikhanov said. “The thinking is, ‘If you have a super narrow beam, nobody can eavesdrop on the signal because they would have to physically get between the transmitter and the receiver.’ What we’ve shown is that Eve doesn’t have to be obtrusive to mount this attack.”

The research showed the attack would be difficult for Alice or Bob to detect today. And while the metasurface must be placed between Alice and Bob, “it could be hidden in the environment,” Knightly said. “You could conceal it with other sheets of paper, for instance.”

Knightly said now that wireless researchers and equipment manufacturers know about the attack, they can further study it, develop detection systems and build those into terahertz networks up front.

“If we had known from day one, when the internet first came out, that there would be denial-of-service attacks and attempts to take down web servers, we would have designed it differently,” Knightly said. “If you build first, wait for attacks and then try to repair, that is a much more costly and expensive path than designing securely up front.

“Millimeter-wave frequencies and metasurfaces are new technologies that can each be used to advance communication, but any time we get a new capability for communication we have to ask the question, ‘What if the adversary has this technology? What new capabilities will it give them that they didn’t have in the past? And how can we realize a secure network against a strong adversary?”

Fahid Hassan of Rice is a study co-author.

This research was supported by Cisco, Intel, the National Science Foundation (1955075, 1923782, 1824529, 1801857, 1923733, 1954780) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (W911NF- 19-2-0269).

This story was authored by Jade Boyd, science editor and associate director of news and media relations in Rice University’s Office of Public Affairs.

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Axon Wireless partners with LoginID to secure communications for mobile and banking customers

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Axon Wireless announced that it has signed an agreement with LoginID to integrate its FIDO-certified passwordless authentication into the Axon Wireless customer provisioning platform.

Axon Wireless LoginID

Axon Wireless currently supports Mobile Operators and banks across 10 countries, onboarding on average 3 million customers per month, with over 250 million identities registered with its Axon Face2Face registration software. Axon is also a supplier of biometric registration hardware devices to complement the Face2Face platform and provides an end-to-end solution to its customers, having provided over 50,000 devices and enabling over 20,000 field agents to perform their customer onboarding duties.

The integration of FIDO for Mobile Operator agents helps eliminate vulnerabilities with traditional login and passwords, preventing account takeovers and other attack vectors.

The use of FIDO2 biometric authentication to secure communications for mobile and banking customers is becoming integral. According to the mobile industry association GSMA, the growth of mobile subscribers in Africa between 2020 and 2025 is poised to grow from 495M to 615M. While the growth of mobile internet users during this same period is forecast to grow from 303M to 474M. Multiple African and Asian countries are currently considering the use of biometrics to be linked to mobile accounts to prevent fraudsters from attacks such as account takeovers, phishing and SIM swaps.

“This will be a first for MEA”, said Romeo Pestana, COO of Axon Wireless. “Axon Wireless will utilize FIDO biometric security as a part of their digital onboarding services. LoginIDs SDKs make it simple to integrate and provide a highly scalable platform to support our current customer base, and growth into the future.”

“Axon Wireless has been a leader in adopting technology that can provide an edge for their business. By introducing FIDO as part of their process for onboarding customers they are demonstrating they are utilizing the most secure and compliant technology for securing customer interactions, and staying ahead of regulator compliance requirements that are becoming the norm”, said Thierry Siminger, Head, Telecom Business Unit,…

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Omnispace partners with Microsoft to enhance the performance and reach of mobile wireless networks

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Omnispace announced that it is collaborating with Microsoft to deliver its global, hybrid 5G non-terrestrial network (5G NTN) to under-served regions.

Omnispace Microsoft

The two companies will work together to architect a Microsoft Azure-centric 5G hybrid network to empower consumer, enterprise, government and IoT users with ubiquitous mobile connectivity.

Omnispace will collaborate with Microsoft to architect, develop and demonstrate an Azure-enabled 5G NTN network to enhance the performance and reach of mobile wireless networks. The global hybrid network will integrate terrestrial and satellite networks into one seamless communications experience. It will leverage Azure Orbital, Microsoft’s Ground-Station-as-a-Service offering with Microsoft’s Azure Operator 5G Core to route voice and data traffic direct from mobile devices via an Omnispace proliferated low-earth orbit (LEO) constellation.

The Omnispace global non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) space network will utilize the company’s 2 GHz mobile satellite spectrum allocation and operate in the 3GPP band n256. As the world’s first 3GPP-compliant 5G NTN network, it will deliver the power of 5G directly to billions of devices everywhere, enabling people and assets to communicate in real-time through a single, seamless global service. Through integration with Omnispace network, mobile network operators will be able to cost effectively enhance and expand their service area(s), while improving resiliency, enabled by Azure services.

“Omnispace is committed to redefining the way the world thinks about mobile communications, and we believe it should be as seamless no matter where you are,” said Ram Viswanathan, president and CEO, Omnispace. “That’s why we are thrilled to collaborate with Microsoft on a solution that will make it possible for anyone requiring global real-time communications to connect to their devices directly from our 5G satellites.”

“Through our partnership, users of Omnispace’s 5G NTN will be able to access the power of the Microsoft Cloud anytime and anywhere even in remote environments enabling ubiquitous real-time communications,” said Steve Kitay, Director, Azure Space.

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