On Cellular Botnets: Measuring The Impact Of Malicious Devices On A Cellular Network Core

The vast expansion of interconnectivity with the Internet and the rapid evolution of highly-capable but largely insecure mobile devices threatens cellular networks In this paper, we characterize the impact of the large scale compromise and coordination of mobile phones in attacks against the core of these networks Through a combination of measurement. simulation and analysis, we demonstrate the ability of a botnet composed of as few as 11350 compromised mobile phones to degrade service to area-code sized regions by 93% As such attacks are accomplished through the execution of network service requests and not a constant stream of phone calls, users are unlikely to be aware of their occurrence We then investigate a number of significant network bottlenecks. their impact on the density of compromised nodes per base station and how they can be avoided We conclude by discussing a number of counter-measures that may help to partially mitigate the threats posed by such attacks