Nokia (NYSE:NOK) this week opened the doors of its Nokia Security Center in Berlin, where the company will bring together mobile network operators, governments, academic institutes and other partners to develop and share know-how and expertise.
Equipped with a fully operational 4G/LTE test network, the center combines a research laboratory and demo center with conference facilities. The opening of the center underscores Nokia's new strategy when it comes to security.
Nokia built the center with a strategy based on three main pillars, according to Jan Kok, head of Nokia Security Center Berlin, in an interview with FierceWirelessTech. Those pillars include security that's built into its products, a newly launched security business line and a security ecosystem whereby it works with best-of-breed partners.
Launching the security business line earlier this year was a major step into the market, as before that, the company had sold and provisioned products and services jointly with partners. Now it has its own resources and development staff in one unit.
Nokia has made a significant investment in hardware, testing and engineering when it comes to security but Kok declined to reveal a dollar amount. Operators from the U.S. will be able to take advantage of the Berlin center because of its remote access capabilities. "It's a worldwide center," he said, adding that it's not limited to Nokia Networks. The location and mapping division HERE and IP licensing unit Nokia Technologies will take advantage of the center as well.
Of course, security threats are growing as networks become all-IP and heterogeneous with LTE and small cells as well as moving to the cloud. Nokia points out that the challenges are compounded by the rising number of smartphones in use and because mobile networks and their users are increasingly targeted by criminals.
Threats to mobile networks include eavesdropping, web session hijacking, software backdoors and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. The Nokia Security Center promises to provide insight into this range of threats and help mobile operators protect their network infrastructure, services and users.
Nokia's full range of security solutions will be implemented at the Nokia Security Center, including partner products from Check Point, F-Secure, Infoblox, Insta DefSec, Juniper Networks and Optenet, the company said.
For more:
- see the press release
- see this ZDNet article
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