BendBright and Cyber Security

In addition, the traditional route of hackers compromising organisations by attacking the data onsite is becoming harder thanks to ever more powerful protectionmechanisms. Consequently, intercepting data when it travels across the network has becomemore attractive. For instance, as described in a Deloitte report on the tapping of fibre networks 2 , it is not as difficult as widely believed to physically compromise a fibre network link. Hackers equipped with simple and low-cost equipment and the proper software tool(s) can intercept in-flight customer data, and remain undetected. The tools to physically tap a fibre network can be easily purchased, and through quick online tutorials, hackers can learn how to steal sensitive data froman optical fibre cable, notably in joints and splicing cassettes where the fibres are individually extracted to be spliced or routed. Considering the huge distances traffic may be travelling through optical fibres from source to destination, maintaining complete end-to-end physical security of the links is challenging. Optical fibres have virtually unlimited capabilities for carrying enormous amounts of traffic, yet cables are surprisingly accessible in the networks, so they have become strategic targets for attackers. One of the solutions to this threat is to directly introduce in-flight encryptionmechanisms to those optical systems transmitting and receiving the information, to fully secure the networks end-to- end 3,4,5 . Yet currently, such end-to-end encryption schemes are applied only to a small percentage of critical data centre interconnect links. Optical fibres carry enormous amounts of data traffic, yet network cables are surprisingly accessible, so they have become strategic targets for hackers. 2. Tapping of Fibre Networks, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, 2017 3. The Lower the Better: Encrypting the Optical Layer, Heavy Reading, 2015 4.Ciena, WaveLogic Encryption Solution Application Note 5.Nokia, WaveLite Enterprise Optical Networking Application Note