4G is the latest network technology that promises faster internet speeds than ever before. But will 4G be vulnerable to hackers? This article will help you understand what risks you might be facing with the newest network technology, and what you can do about it.
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1. What Is 4G?
4G, or Fourth-Generation Mobile Technology, is the latest iteration of mobile wireless service. It's much faster than 3G, the previous version, and allows for downloads of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps). 4G is generally available in metropolitan areas, but not in all areas.
If you haven’t noticed (yet), your streaming video has an Internet speed attached to it. A video file will actually contain four components: audio, video, photo, and a description (metadata). The audio and video components require slower Internet connections, while the last two components, the metadata, download extremely quickly. Thus, a fast Internet connection assures an even faster YouTube experience. It’s no surprise that YouTube recommends speed between 200 and 600 kbps for 1080p video. 200 kbps is the minimum data rate YouTube recommends, so if you must upload large videos to YouTube, plan to enter a location where there is reliable Internet service and fast mobile Internet (e.g. your home).
But what if your county, town, or city lacks reliable internet service and you have access to only 2G, 3G, or 4G wireless networks? Are you at serious risk for hackers? If your answer is yes, you’ll want to know how to protect yourself and your videos from potential hackers who might destroy or damage your content.
Cipping Data: What to Look for
Although most videos are stored on DVDs, this isn’t the only type of data that laptops and tablets store. At the high-speed 256Kbps that laptops and tablets are capable of attain, data stored on their hard drives is called Flash. Flash is connected to the laptop or tablet’s USB cable, and if your laptop or tablet has a connected flash drive, chances are it contains all the files necessary to access the videos stored on it. But these are not the only files potentially available on a hard drive: pirated movies, toilet paper, and even your presentations could be stored there. If your hard drive is connected to your network, the same files are also available freely over the network.
2. How Can 4G Be Vulnerable To Hackers?
Nearly 20% of 4G networks around the world are vulnerable to a newly found security flaw, which has been given the name "LTEP." The LTE-P protocol was developed by Qualcomm and is used in some 4G networks to allow for faster speeds on mobile devices. The flaw has already been fixed in some cases, but not all.Let that sink in for a minute. How could hackers find a way to exploit this problem? Let's start at the beginning. Can you blame 4G users for being paranoid? Yes. Hackers have targeted AT&T's Cricket Wireless and T-Mobile's Cricket Wireless 4G services with targeted attacks in the past, and I'd wager they'll do something like this sometime soon.
Remember that convenience comes at a price, and security comes at a cost. Fortunately, the answer is fairly clear. Make sure to update your static IP address prior to April 2014. Also, during this time, change your DNS Server from google.com to your company website. You can read up on how to update your DNS Server here, but you must implement the new DNS Server before April 15th. This can be done easily on many different platforms. There were also DNS server updates during 2007 and 2008, so the process for bringing your DNS Server online should be very simple. If your ISP requires you to have a static IP address, make sure you update your static IP address prior to April 2014 to take advantage of this new technology. Finally, if you have a T-Mobile 4G internet plan and your ISP requires you to buy a "T-mobile router" to replace your default ISP IP, you may also want to upgrade your ISP so that you are no longer at risk. Lastly, in 2007, there were fears about the existence of gigantic worms called worms/Tomas, which were discovered operating on the internet through 4G modems. The worms (called "Modems 2.0") were able to capture phone calls and text messages, and hijack routers, audio/video recorders, and internet-connected refrigerators. These worms were named after notorious hacker "Mystery Guest" Cyrus Shepard, who was later sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The Evolution of Mobile Connectivity: From Edge to 5G Networks
3. How Can You Protect Yourself From A Hacker Attacking Your Network?
A hacker can attack your network in many ways; the majority of those ways are through vulnerabilities in your own network. Network vulnerabilities are often known as blackhats, and they can be pretty incredible messes for your network, company, or organization.
Vulnerability #1: Glitches & Bugs
How badly are your Internet connections really vulnerable? A good starting point would be to look at any bugs or glitches your internet provider reports about their networks to you. In many areas where we surf the web, particularly the popular internet, your ISP will provide you with networking information.
Common ISP bugs that affect your network include:
- Internet routing and traffic prioritization problems
- Connection drop issues
- Connection errors that prevent your host from checking for a connection
- Connection drops that occur without your ISP informing you
- Connection drops that occur while your network is down
- Speed issues or speed throttling
- Connection management issues
- Server outage issues
- Bandwidth limits
- IP filtering and ping response caching
- Redirection
- Firewall filtering and redirects
- Java based proxy servers
- Server port forwarding based on client IP address
- Response codes that can be used to cheat
- Redirect loops based on software configuration or user error
- Connection and timeouts based on software configuration or user error
How vulnerable your network is may depend on a variety of factors, including your own personal or your company's actions.
The risk of hacking your internet connection is significant enough that by making your network as secure as possible, you could be improving the odds of your potential hackers not having a way to get in. For more on how to secure your network, see this previous Moz article.
Conclusion: If you want to stay safe from hackers, then you must be proactive and take steps to prevent them from attacking your network. These tips will help you do just that.
According to Verizon’s website, “4G offers symmetrical, unlimited LTE data, and works on the same exact band of frequencies as LTE (e.g. because your smartphone uses the same spectrum, 4G works on the same frequency as LTE.) Unlike 3G, which is susceptible to interference from your neighbors, 4G works without obstructions. This means you can use the network no matter where you are.”
Like 3G, which Verizon called “millimeter wave” technology until relatively recently, 4G uses radio waves that use smaller angles compared to radio waves using longer wavelengths. In order to pull this off, Verizon decided not to use 3G’s old shorter wavelength base stations, but rather use the new longer wavelength millimeter wave radio stations.
Does this mean that my restaurant took a hit when Verizon decided to switch to 4G? It may seem unlikely because Verizon wasn’t the last company to switch to the new radio technology. According to PC World, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon all switched to 4G in the past year, with none of them reporting any serious impact to their services.
Even though AT&T and T-Mobile have both been extremely slow to bring 4G to their networks, and even though all four of these companies still aren’t accessible in some regions because of their slow upgrade timelines (Sprint got bogged down with the COVID-19 virus and has been communicating with consumers through their outage map), there hasn’t been a single case of major disruption to phone service at any of these companies.
The networks have the same basic radio technology with the same benefits and risks.
The Evolution of Mobile Connectivity: From Edge to 5G Networks
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