WSP Global : How Cyber Security Is Vital for Society

Technology has advanced so rapidly over the last 15 years that security issues may have been overlooked. In Sweden, the fibre infrastructure is now deployed to 60-70% of all households and businesses whereas the 4G mobile network accounts for more than 95%. Most domestic networks are currently used for internet access and television, but applications are now being developed for a myriad of new services which are making our world smarter by the day.

Power of Digitization

For example, the digitization of healthcare - known as e-health - is helping improve the efficiency of home care for the sick and elderly. Alarms, mobile applications to remind patients to take their medication or measure their pulse or blood pressure, electronic locks or even 24-hour camera monitoring can offer people greater independence living in their own homes. Through the internet of things, society is becoming increasingly connected at all times.

Digitization and automation of infrastructure and vital public services are leading to smart power grids and water supply networks, district heating, smart transport systems with driverless cars and countless other innovations that are making our homes, towns and cities more efficient and more sustainable from an economic, ecologic and environmental perspective.

Billions of Monitoring Sensors

All these developments are leading to an explosion in the number of sensors required to measure, monitor and control in different applications. According to Cisco, one of the world's largest manufacturers of network equipment, there are already around five billion sensors worldwide connecting buildings, railways, roads, hospitals, homes and so on. And that figure will increase exponentially, leading to trillions of sensors being installed for various purposes over the next five years.

Protecting Individuals and the Society

Network security is of the utmost importance to prevent abuse and dangerous or criminal activity. You can't have an unauthorized person gaining access to cameras monitoring an elderly person at home, remotely 'hijacking' a driverless vehicle or obtaining confidential data. Any weakness in the system increases the risk for cyberattacks, and the threat doesn't just affect individuals - businesses, industry and the whole of society are at risk.

Cyber security is vital to ensure the safe development of our digital world. It encompasses the entire security chain, from protecting servers, data centres, telecommunication nodes, networks and the like from physical harm to the logical aspects of identity verification and encryption. It also involves building redundancy into the basic systems by duplicating the digital infrastructure so that not a single cable, piece of equipment or system can cause the failure of any vital part of the digital environment. We need 99.999% uptime for a safe and secure system.

Examples from Sweden

To ensure that the systems are secure and robust, both the Swedish authorities and international regulators have come up with a range of requirements relating to the management and functionality of digital networks.

This is where we come in. Our role is to pre-certify the networks based on Swedish requirements and the international standard ISO 27001, which provide guidelines on how the digital infrastructure must be secured, including guidelines for data storage, reliability of networks and equipment, and ensuring network owners have contingency and action plans to maintain reliable operation of the networks and equipment.

Our clients include network operators, power, water supply or district heating companies, municipalities and data centres. In order to operate digitally, they must be certified by regulatory bodies. Our approach is to help them understand how they can derive most benefits from digitization and what they need to do to achieve certification. We then carry out a risk and vulnerability analysis to gain a picture of the threats they face, what needs to be prioritized and what actions need to be taken.

We also certify their equipment or infrastructure according to the regulatory requirements for reliability and continuity of operation. Working in partnership with sub-consultants we may also look deeper into the applications to see whether there are any threats to a specific application, server or system within a network.

Pre-studies and Audits

Our projects in Sweden include pre-studies and audits for the Sandvik and Västerås municipalities and the Kristiandstad and Vänerenergi city networks.

During a pre-study or audit we assess some or all of the following:

• Cyber security management framework
• Risk assessment
• Reference architecture design
• Cyber security training awareness
• Traffic analysing and penetration tests
• Incident response monitoring and report to authorities