Understanding cellular IoT security: Part 1

Part 1: The Trust Services Criteria

Security is a word that can mean different things for different people and use cases. Believe it or not, security (itself) isn’t the ultimate goal. Rather, the goals are to control risk and enable trust. That’s why it is important to consider security in conjunction with the other components necessary to achieve these goals.

As we start this 3-part blog series about understanding cellular security, I’d like to start by framing the conversation around an industry-accepted set of criteria for rating an organization’s controls called the Trust Service Criteria. I have found it to be both useful and of sufficient scope to address what is necessary for risk management and trust.

The five Trust Services Criteria are:

1. Security: Controls that protect data from unauthorized access
2. Availability: Controls that ensure data is accessible when needed
3. Processing integrity: Controls that ensure data is processed accurately and reliably
4. Confidentiality: Controls that restrict unauthorized access to systems and data
5. Privacy: Controls that protect the rights of consumers and their data

A good (so-called) “security program” really should be expanded to include the five Trust Services Criteria areas, as these really are inseparable in order to achieve an organization’s risk and trust goals. Let’s take a look at each one and see how it applies to cellular IoT.

Let’s start by looking at how the Trust Services Criteria is useful, how it applies to cellular IoT, and how Hologram can help you achieve your risk management and trust goals.

Security

One of the primary objectives of a good security program is to reduce the attack surface and eliminate attack vectors. These attack vectors are steps that an unauthorized user/system would take to get into a device.

Here’s an example that I’m sure none of us actually has experience with - but that we can all understand from watching movies. Let’s pretend that you were going to rob a bank. First you’d pick the lock on the front door and then usually a second door. If you got through those into the bank, a cage door blocks access to the vault. And if you breached that, there’s the heavily reinforced vault doors. At each door, there’s a security system that detects the breach.

In the cellular IoT world, these doors are “attack vectors”. To reduce the attack surface, firewalls help isolate devices from one another. Adding multiple firewalls between devices and the Internet further reduces the attack surface and minimizes attack vectors.

Hologram provides additional levels of security out of the box.

• Hologram’s Software-Defined Network (SDN) provides advanced security out-of-the-box today and can be adapted to meet your organization’s unique needs to grow with you tomorrow.
• We use a combination of network segmentation and multiple layers of firewalls to shield systems and devices from unauthorized traffic.
• All traffic is authenticated and controlled - only authorized cellular devices can connect to Hologram’s network. Controls such as data limits are enforced for each line of service. All inbound connections to devices are also authenticated.

Availability

Ensuring that systems are available for use within specified time frames and service level agreements (SLAs) is essential in the Trust Services Model. In addition to minimizing downtime and interruptions to normal operations, the systems should be resilient in case of failure, with effective measures in place to recover from disasters or any incidents that might disrupt the availability of services. Availability is also ensuring that systems have the necessary capacity to handle anticipated loads. This is especially important for avoiding service interruptions during periods of high demand.

As the connectivity backbone for our customers’ services, Hologram’s role is to ensure our systems are available so that your systems and services are operational.

• Hologram is the only cellular IoT provider to offer a contractually guaranteed uptime of 99.95%.
• Hologram’s Outage Protection provides multiple mobile cores to each SIM and falls back to a backup core if the primary core network encounters a failure.
• Hologram utilizes redundancy and load balancing where practicable to help maintain availability and system performance.

Processing integrity

Processing integrity is also critical according to the Trust Services Criteria. Ensuring data accuracy and system reliability is crucial for maintaining customer confidence in the IoT product, especially when dealing with sensitive data. Implementing controlled processes for updating software and configurations on IoT devices and backend systems minimizes disruption and potential data inconsistencies. Restricting access to critical data processing systems to authorized personnel and only through these controlled processes helps prevent unauthorized modifications that could compromise integrity.

Hologram's systems and network are designed with quality and integrity control.

• All changes to Hologram's product and systems are documented and reviewed.
• Hologram's products and services interoperate with numerous cellular networks worldwide using industry standards and best practices (e.g. eUICC, GSMA, 3GPP, and others).
• Hologram SIMs undergo multiple rounds of quality assurance testing, which is why we have never once had a SIM order returned for reasons of operational defect.

Confidentiality

It’s easy to confuse confidentiality and security, but in the Trust Services Criteria they have specific meanings. Confidentiality refers to the principle that an organization's systems and processes must protect sensitive or confidential data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. The goal is to prevent information from being disclosed to people or systems that are not authorized to access it, either intentionally or accidentally.

Data encryption protects confidential data in transit (when data is being sent over networks). End-to-end encryption ensures that, even if data is intercepted or accessed without authorization, it cannot be read or used by anyone who isn’t the intended recipient. Data retention and disposal policies for how long confidential data should be retained and securely disposing of data when it is no longer needed are also important for confidentiality. This helps prevent unauthorized access to outdated or unnecessary data.

Hologram has zero access to device data.

• End-to-end encryption results in zero access by Hologram and its partners to customer and end-customer device data transmitted via cellular connectivity.
• Hologram’s connectivity is permitted for use in HIPAA- and PCI-compliant products.
• Hologram’s SIMs and connectivity conform to industry standards and best practices, including GSMA and 3GPP standards that help maintain confidentiality (and security).

Privacy

Privacy refers to the protection of personal data and ensuring that it is collected, stored, processed, and (if necessary) shared in accordance with privacy laws, regulations, and accepted standards. Organizations should only collect the data that is necessary for their service or their purpose. They should also obtain clear, informed consent from users for the collection, use, and sharing of their data, ensuring that individuals can exercise their rights over their personal data, such as requesting access or deletion (e.g., under GDPR).

Hologram has no access to customer and end-customer data transmitted by devices across our networks.

• Data collection of PII, if any, is consensual, limited, transparent, and legitimate and used only for business purposes.
• We do not sell personally-identifiable information.
• Hologram publishes a privacy policy and product privacy disclosure.

It adds up to trust

When each of the elements of a Trust Service Criteria are addressed and achieved, the outcome is TRUST.

• Security
• Availability
• Processing integrity
• Confidentiality
• Privacy

Be sure to know what you are buying from your cellular IoT provider. Ask appropriate questions about their practices, policies, and procedures. Work with your internal teams to ensure the same levels of security in your systems.

Check back for Part 2: What is software-defined networking?