News
Zain KSA and Enea announce next-generation signaling overlay security technology innovation
April 2024 by Marc Jacob
Enea and Zain KSA announced a collaboration to pilot the mobile network signaling overlay technology, which significantly extends signaling firewall capabilities. The patent-pending signaling security overlay was conceived in Enea’s Technology Research unit during 2023 with patents filed in December 2023.
Enea’s signaling overlay technology represents a novel approach to enhancing mobile network security and efficiency. By employing transport layer-aware distributed ingestion across both virtual/cloud and traditional network infrastructures, signaling firewalls gain deeper insights into network events, ensuring robust protection against emerging threats. Leveraging the adaptive signaling firewall’s advanced techniques for detection and protocol correlation, the overlay technology enables mobile operators to safeguard their networks against sophisticated attacks.
The long-standing collaboration between Zain KSA and Enea is underpinned by Zain KSA’s commitment to network security and its willingness to embrace new technologies, making it an ideal partner for this initiative. Additionally, Zain KSA’s extensive network infrastructure provides an optimal environment for field validation of the concept.
The signaling security overlay technology pilot project will be undertaken in Zain KSA’s network in Saudi Arabia during 2024. The Kingdom is at the forefront of 5G development as part of Saudi Vision 2030’s goal to become an ICT leader and transform into a sustainable digital economy. With the global threats on telecom networks escalating, network security has become a high priority for Zain KSA, which has consistently invested in security for both signaling and messaging to safeguard its extensive digital ecosystem. This pilot will accelerate the technology innovation and deployment of next-generation signaling security solutions for complex and more sophisticated network security attacks.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the world first pilot was signed at Mobile World Congress Barcelona by Anders Lidbeck, CEO of Enea, and Abdulrahman Al Mufadda, COO of Zain KSA. While Zain KSA will be the first to test the new technology, the pilot program may be expanded to several other markets and customers. The trial, to commence in 2024, underscores both companies’ commitment to advancing telecom technology and enhancing network security.
