Independent rural broadband ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) has announced the appointment of Neil Conaghan as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The move is part of the provider’s effort to expand their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 500,000 premises (here) in the North of England and Scottish Borders by around the end of 2025. Changes […]

Mobile operator 1p Mobile has recently introduced a couple of new Pay Monthly plans to complement their usual Pay As You Go (PAYG) offerings, which will now bundle in up to 200GB (GigaBytes) of monthly data (mobile broadband) alongside the usual pledges of “no contract“, “no credit checks” and unlimited calls / texts. The operator […]

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The Distribution Partnership Agreement will see OneWeb provide connectivity services to government and enterprise customers across parts of Africa

Today, OneWeb has announced a new distribution deal with Airtel Africa, giving the telco access to their growing low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to provide connectivity to customers.

The strategic agreement focusses on using the LEO satellites to deliver connectivity to government and enterprise customers, especially those in hard-to-reach areas. Agricultural sites, schools, hotels, hospitals, and the energy and mining sectors are also noted as targets for the satellite service.

OneWeb is set to begin trialling its low latency communications services in South Africa in September 2023, with the long-term goal to rollout the service across Airtel Africa’s entire continental footprint, comprising 14 countries in East, Central, and West Africa.

“At OneWeb, we believe that connection everywhere changes everything, so we are excited to be working with Airtel Africa to enhance OneWeb’s connectivity solutions across the African continent,” said Ben Griffin, VP Mobility and AMEA at OneWeb. “This is a strategic fit, given our shared commitment to resiliency and excellence in communications services and the partnership represents another exciting milestone on our path to delivering global connectivity. We look forward to delivering high-performance service across Africa, even in the hardest to reach places.”

For the time being, however, OneWeb’s potential African customers will need to wait before they can receive connectivity services; the company currently has 462 satellites in orbit, allowing it to only offer commercial services above the 50th Parallel North – essentially, Northern Europe and Canada.

OneWeb says they will need 648 satellites to offer global coverage, including across Africa, with the company suggesting that this will take four more launches. The full constellation is expected to be operational in 2023.

Alongside this deal with Airtel Africa, OneWeb has today also announced a similar partnership with Middle Eastern satellite player Azyan Telecom, allowing them to satellite connectivity throughout Oman.

These are the latest in a long string of telco partnerships that OneWeb has struck over the past year, including with giants such as AT&T in the US and BT in the UK.

Also in the news:
Remaining competitive in an evolving telco landscape
Wi-Fly: Could AFC improve rural connectivity?
BT warns of further job losses as soaring bills force bigger cost-cutting drive

The post OneWeb and Airtel Africa partner to deliver telecoms services across Africa first appeared on Total Telecom.

Leicestershire-based telecoms support and civil engineer firm HG Comms Ltd (HGC), which works with a number of UK broadband operators in different capacities (e.g. Cityfibre), has announced that they’ve been acquired by global infrastructure giant Vinci for an undisclosed sum. The purchase is said to have been undertaken and completed by Cobra IS, a Vinci […]

Contributed Article

When it comes to effective cyber defences, SOCs – Security Operations Centres – have a vital role to play, says Nadia Doughty, Technical Pre-Sales Consultant with BAE Systems Digital Intelligence.

The trouble is, not every organisation has them…

I had one of those awful phishing emails earlier today – apt timing given writing this blog was on my to-do list. Luckily, I spotted it and was quick to report and delete, but I imagine such attempts can often get through. It takes only a momentary lapse in concentration and cyber attackers can be free to run amok across your private digital terrain.

That I was aware enough to spot the attempt was down to the fact that I’d had my coffee this morning and, more importantly, I work at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, where the importance of one’s personal cyber security is drilled into us, both verbally and through various operational exercises. This is particularly pertinent given we have recently shifted to hybrid working and so we’re not always protected by our office-based firewalls.

That said, despite such defensive efforts, there’s no doubt that the cyber threat has evolved and matured. All too often, the rapidly emerging threat landscape means that corporate safeguards constructed only a few years ago may no longer be able to detect, mitigate and respond comprehensively to the ever circling threat of cyber attackers.

Traditional security operations only protect against predictable threats. Effective cyber defence against sustained threats now require advanced security operations, threat intelligence and incident response capabilities.

In other words, what’s needed is a Security Operations Centre (SOC), but what is this exactly?

Signalling for a SOC

We’re all familiar with the concept of a one stop shop, something which brings together myriad services and personnel under one roof. Well, a SOC is the same but is specifically for cyber defence. Basically, a SOC is a team of IT security professionals who are tasked with safeguarding an organisation’s IT systems and infrastructure, detecting threats and responding in real time.

As my colleague Chris Holt attests, although their design and construction do not always run smoothly, SOCs have the potential to offer an array of benefits. Not only do they combine advanced protective monitoring and detection techniques to detect and counter targeted attack campaigns but they can also proactively detect and reverse engineer emerging threats. And as well as being responsible for implementing a robust incident management process, they can also lead the way in strengthening security operations capabilities, tailoring security objectives to meet an organisation’s bespoke needs.

So that all sounds great – what’s the problem?

Well, in addition to the issues that Chris has described, it transpires that not every organisation has opted to have a SOC spearheading their cyber defences.

Wanted: More SOCs

I work predominately in the telecoms industry and my colleagues and I have found that all too often, organisations focus their services on responding to Advanced Persistent Threats. Now that’s fine, but these are only nation state threat actors – it by no means captures the scale of the threat. And monitoring only happens on an ad hoc basis – hardly the 24/7 approach on offer from SOCs.

We believe telco organisations can take a three step approach to achieve more effective monitoring and reduce their cyber risk. In the short term, analysts should be deployed to existing IT teams to establish a regular monitoring cadence. Over the medium term, the focus should switch to recruiting new security specialists who can assist with knowledge transfer and better prepare each organisation for the cyber challenges taking shape on the horizon. And then over the longer term, SOCs can be set up and strategically integrated within each organisation’s structure and processes.

How we can help

BAE Systems has a wealth of experience in the design, build and continuous improvement of SOCs, and more importantly understands the need to establish a proportionate operation which maximises value to the customer organisation.

BAE Systems offers a range of services to help organisations traverse their SOC journey.

Security Operations Needs Assessment (SONA):
It is difficult to establish or mature a SOC in a unified and strategic way without a clear understanding of what that security operation should look like in the context of the threat, risk and business posture of the organisation. SONA offers detailed consultancy and thought leadership to define the requirements and target state for security operations within an organisation, proportionate to their threat and risk landscape and in line with their business requirements, compliance obligations and risk appetite.
SOC Design & Build:
BAE Systems has successfully delivered several large SOC implementations globally using our proven, vender-agnostic SOC blueprint. The blueprint architecture is modular, open and flexible, enabling customers to wrap around existing investments, as well as building from the ground up, to create a security operations capability which fits the needs of the organisation. BAE Systems implements a design, build, run, transfer model, enabling the upskilling of in-house capability and eventual enterprise ownership once staff reach a sufficient level of expertise.
Security Operations Centre Maturity Assessment (SOC MA):
In light of the ever-evolving cyber landscape, SOCs established only a few years ago may no longer be able to detect, mitigate and respond as comprehensively and effectively as they once were. Organisations with a desire to improve must have a detailed understanding of current maturity and the gaps and challenges which may be impeding growth. BAE Systems’ SOC MA offering is a short engagement which uses a simple, scalable and repeatable methodology based upon our proven SOC blueprint, to conduct a thorough assessment of the maturity of existing SOC capabilities and produce pragmatic, prioritised recommendations to help customers maximise the value and effectiveness of their SOC operation.

Learn more about our Security Operation Centre design and delivery services
https://www.baesystems.com/en/cybersecurity/product/secure-operations-centre-design—delivery

 

The post SOC it to them first appeared on Total Telecom.

Broadband ISP Lit Fibre, which aspires to cover 500,000 UK homes by 2026 with their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, has today announced that they’ve added the Wiltshire (England) town of Warminster and five new towns in the West Midlands to their rollout plan. Installation in Warminster is already said to be “well underway” and […]

Alternative network operator Netomnia – supported by UK ISP YouFibre – has revealed more details of their plan to extend a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to the city of Manchester and the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. The two projects represent a combined investment of up to £31.8m. The operator, which has already covered 265,000 […]

Broadband ISP BeFibre, which alongside UK network partner Digital Infrastructure is deploying a new gigabit speed full fibre network across towns in several counties (e.g. Essex, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire etc.), has today launched somewhat of a brand refresh and new simplified logo. The new branding, which has been pieced together by The […]

NEWS

The new submarine cable network will span from Hong Kong to Singapore, with branches to China, Brunei, and the Philippines

Today, a consortium of Southeast Asian telecoms operators has announced its intention to build the Asia Link Cable (ALC), a new submarine cable system to provide the region with improved connectivity and greater data route diversity.

The $300 million ALC system will be roughly will be roughly 6,000km long, stretching between Hong Kong and Singapore, with branches extending to Hainan in China, Tungku in Brunei, and two locations in the Philippines: Luna and Bauang.

The consortium itself comprises six of the region’s largest telcos: Singtel, China Telecom Global, Globe Telecom, DITO Telecommunity, Unified National Networks, and China Telecommunications.

According to the consortium, the cable system will comprise eight fibre pairs and deliver a data transmission rate of 18 Tbps per pair.

HMN Technologies has been contracted the supply and deploy the infrastructure for the system.

“ALC is a great accomplishment of Asian carriers which overcame difficulties of Covid impacts, and it is also the only subsea project with zero face-to-face meetings from the MoU to the C&MA (construction and maintenance agreement) signing in the industry,” explained ALC Co-Chair Chang Weiguo. “ALC consortium adopts an open and inclusive principle and will attract more investors in the near future to make it more cost-effective, which will reinforce the resilience of interconnectivity in Asia and better serve digital economy in the region.”

The ALC system is expected to be ready for service in Q3 of 2025.

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is developing rapidly, with research from Google, Temasek Holdings Pte, and Bain & Co. last year suggesting that the online economy will double in value to $363 billion by 2025. The meteoric rise of e-commerce appears to be the key driving factor here; the report suggests that the region’s online spending increased by 49% $174 billion in 2021, fuelled in no small part by the increase in both fixed and mobile internet access in the region.

Naturally, as this increase in data traffic continues to boom, the deployment of high-quality submarine cable infrastructure will only become more crucial.

How has the submarine cable landscape evolved over the last year? Join the industry in discussion at the upcoming Submarine Networks EMEA event

Also in the news:
Remaining competitive in an evolving telco landscape
Wi-Fly: Could AFC improve rural connectivity?
BT warns of further job losses as soaring bills force bigger cost-cutting drive

The post Southeast Asian telcos team up for $300m Asia Link Cable first appeared on Total Telecom.

The rural Wilbraham (Great Wilbraham and Little Wilbraham) community in Cambridgeshire (England) is celebrating today after an alternative network ISP, Cambridge Fibre, was able to successfully rollout a multi-gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across the village. We haven’t heard much from Cambridge Fibre since they deployed a new full fibre network across parts of […]