Singapore Security Alert As IoT Vulnerability Impacts SingTel Routers

It has been reported that NewSky Security has uncovered a security vulnerability across all routers from Singapore’s leading internet service provider, SingTel. The uncovered vulnerability could potentially give access to all devices connected to the affected routers. Natan Bandler, CEO & Co-Founder at Cy-oT commented below.

Natan Bandler, CEO & Co-Founder at Cy-oT: 

“This is yet another example of routers being attacked and unfortunatly, this is a daily occurrence. We might not always be aware of it, but routers are being attacked all day every day. What we need to remember is that the most sensitive assets are in enterprise organizations, so hacking groups are looking for the easiest way to access these assets in order to make money, and these vulnerabilities give them that access.

In this case, it seems that there was a misconfiguration of the router which caused the vulnerability. This will always happen- human error will always happen. There’s no way to stop it, so it’s not simply a matter of making sure that the software is tightly secured, tested and patched. In order to be completely secure, you cannot trust the infrastructure itself. Security should be separate from the infrastructure, and therefore you need an external mechanism.

You can’t trust that a device is secure and protected by design. People assume they are protected all the time, but things happen. Yes, there are patches and this can solve one security issue, but they can also bring in another security issue. There are human mistakes, configuration mistakes – it will always happen.

This is just an issue of statistics. Strong, offensive hacking groups assume that they will find enough devices in an organization that are vulnerable in some way – and this is why they’re so successful. When they find it, they will use it.

We need to take into account that risks and vulnerabilities are around us all the time, so to be protected, organizations need a mechanism that is monitoring all the activity and detects when something is broken. You need to be able to detect when someone is trying to utilize the vulnerability or the risk will always be there.”