Overview of Cyberattacks Against Radio Access Networks in Long-term Evolution Mobile Networks and Defense Solutions

Abstract

Mobile communication standard has been extensively developed to introduce many more connected devices for the Internet of Things (IoT). However, the vulnerability of radio access network (RAN) in long-term evolution (LTE) would impact the security of IoT applications by LTE. RAN transmits/receives data over the air interface and is vulnerable to many active and passive attacks as RAN procedures typically occur before any security establishment. With the growth in devices connecting to the Internet, massive-scale attacks would be easier for the attackers to execute. This work practices those attacks against certain individual telecommunication service providers (TSPs) in Taiwan with various kinds of mobile devices. The potential solutions against the attacks in RAN are also introduced for the defense in this work.