Protecting Emergency Services from Criminal Activity

One of the most notable consequences of the global pandemic was the collective shift to the digital world for work activity. Thankfully, our technological advancements over the last decade have made this transition smoother than most would have ever suspected. Prioritizing the digital space for so much activity has not been without problems, which is evident with rising cybercrime rates across the world.

Casual readers might be familiar with the intentions behind these attacks. Hackers often use ransomware to steal and encrypt data, which is leveraged to extort the victim for money. Because this is the most common example, most people tend to think these exploits shouldn’t alarm them. Why? Simply due to the fact that it's not their money. Generally, the public only cares about  issues directly affecting them. But if cybercrime rates continue their current trajectory, critical public services could be compromised.

Businesses are not the only organizations migrating to digital. Government agencies are also making this switch, most notably emergency services. However, doing this makes these services vulnerable to the same problems the pandemic created for businesses.. Hackers could potentially shut down emergency services at any time, causing complete chaos for citizens in need.

This reality has led to the creation of the NextGen 911 initiative, which suggests directing emergency response call traffic to an isolated IP network. By doing this, call traffic is limited only to emergency related matters. Having a system that is completely independent from regular network traffic seems to be the most sensible solution for thwarting criminals from impacting public services.

The public has yet to see a disruption in emergency services, but we should not wait until it’s too late to make a change. The ongoing digital revolution will bring massive benefits to the way we live and work, but we cannot ignore the potential risks of leaving critical infrastructure unprotected.

Edited by Maurice Nagle