A Taxonomy of Cyber Attacks on 3G Networks

Cross Network Services are a new breed of services that have spawned from the merger of the Internet and the previously isolated wireless telecommunication network. These services act as a launching pad for a new type of security threat the Cross Infrastructure Cyber Attack. This paper is the first to propose attack taxonomy for 3G networks. The uniqueness of this taxonomy is the inclusion of Cross Infrastructure Cyber Attacks in addition to the standard Single Infrastructure attacks. This paper also proposes an abstract model of the 3G network entities. This abstract model has been a vehicle in the development of the attack taxonomy, detection of vulnerable points in the network and validating 3G network vulnerability assessment tools. This paper examines the threats and vulnerabilities in a 3G network with special examination of the security threats and vulnerabilities introduced by the merger of the 3G and the Internet. The abstract model aids this comprehensive study of security threats and vulnerabilities on 3G networks.