Motorola Solutions' ActiveEye MDR solution and SOC monitoring
TETRA Ireland enhances the security posture of its DIMETRA™ TETRA solution for the Managed National Digital Radio Service
Customer
TETRA Ireland Communications Limited
Industry
Managed National Digital Radio Service (MNDRS)
Location
Ireland
Solutions
DIMETRA TETRA network
ActiveEye Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution, including:
- ActiveEye Remote Security Sensors (AERSS)
- 24/7 Security Operations Centre (SOC) monitoring
Challenge
TETRA Ireland needed to enhance the security posture of its national DIMETRA TETRA radio network and optimise the security of its service to customers. It wanted a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service solution underpinned by 24/7 security operations centre (SOC) monitoring to help it meet its evolving cyber security requirements. TETRA Ireland decided to deploy Motorola Solutions' ActiveEye MDR solution, including ActiveEye Remote Security Sensors (AERSS) and SOC; however, ActiveEye had never previously been deployed on a European DIMETRA public safety network. As such, considerable design considerations and requirements first needed to be met.
Solution
As the first European deployment of its kind, the ActiveEye MDR was initially installed on TETRA Ireland's logically and physically separate stand-by Mobile Switching Office (MSO). It was only to be installed on the live network (by repeating the installation process and hardware configurations) once the deployment on the standby MSO proved successful.
ActiveEye functions by having data from the monitored system funnelled to locally deployed ActiveEye Remote Security Sensor (AERSS) collectors; these are physically deployed, rack-mounted servers that collect and monitor security-relevant logs. Motorola Solutions also provides comprehensive Incident Response and System Recovery services to help TETRA Ireland rapidly detect, respond to, and recover from attacks or data breaches. The AERSS collectors report all this data back to the ActiveEye security platform for proactive monitoring and analysis by Motorola Solutions' 24/7 Security Operations Centre (SOC). The SOC is US-based and serves customers across the US and Europe.
To maintain the MNDRS's perimeter security, it was decided that the AERSS collectors would be placed outside the MNDRS infrastructure, with additional firewalling between collectors and the MNDRS network. These new firewalls were configured to ensure that only outbound traffic from the MNDRS to the collectors would be permitted. Once these firewalls and collectors were in place, the former were subject to configuration analysis to ensure they were optimally configured, with outputs being acted upon and repeated to ensure effective implementation. Following this, the firewall underwent two separate and further external vulnerability scans and penetration tests to make certain no avenues for unauthorised access or egress were left open.
The focus then switched to the data to be transferred to the collector from the DIMETRA platform within the MNDRS; for this side to function effectively, system logs (syslogs) would need to be sent to the AERSS collectors. The Motorola Solutions team undertook extensive analysis of typical system logs to ensure that their content would not present a risk to the MNDRS if sent outside the perimeter of the MNDRS (albeit in a controlled, specific manner). Once all these system parameters were satisfied, all network devices within the DIMETRA platform with the necessary capability were configured to send syslog messages to the collectors.
The final stage of the process was to check that Motorola Solutions' SOC had full visibility of the expected alerts from all specified devices within the MNDRS, as well as a clear understanding of the TETRA Ireland platform configuration during a soak test period. TETRA Ireland and the SOC collaborated to ensure that a robust alert monitoring process, incident response process, and relevant escalation paths were all in place before ActiveEye went live. TETRA Ireland also ran a cybersecurity Tabletop Exercise before go-live to evaluate the effectiveness of the new system and to make certain all stakeholders were aware of their responsibilities in case of an incident. And once the ActiveEye MDR had run successfully on the stand-by MSO for several weeks, it was deployed on the live network, as planned.
As the operator of Ireland's MNDRS PDDR network, we are deeply committed to addressing the constantly changing landscape of cybersecurity threats. To strengthen our existing cybersecurity measures, we have integrated Motorola Solutions' ActiveEye MDR solution with a 24/7 SOC monitoring service on our DIMETRA platform. The engagement by Motorola Solutions' global cybersecurity and the ActiveEye product and deployment teams in implementing this solution has enabled us to significantly enhance our overall cybersecurity position.
— Neville Reilly, Managing Director, TETRA Ireland Communications Limited
Benefits
A compromised public safety network can have severe consequences for its users; mission-critical communications can be jeopardised, and emergency response capabilities affected. TETRA Ireland understood the importance of protecting the MNDRS from evolving cyber threats, such as unauthorised logins, malicious network connections and files, and unknown software installations. By implementing Motorola Solutions' ActiveEye MDR solution and the 24/7 monitoring provided by Motorola Solutions' SOC, TETRA Ireland has significantly further improved the security of the DIMETRA TETRA MNDRS and has strong insights around threat actor activity, their sources and deployed mitigation techniques, so its users can continue to rely on the integrity of their voice and data communications now and into the future.
The solution allows TETRA Ireland to maintain the CIA Triad of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability for its customers' networks and systems.
- Enhanced, rapid threat detection that continuously monitors and protects devices and networks in real-time against cyber threats like malware and ransomware
- 24/7 security monitoring and support from cybersecurity experts in Motorola Solutions' global SOC, which offers clients throughout Europe and the US extensive access to cybersecurity insights and expertise, reducing the burden on IT teams
Our ActiveEye platform, combined with 24/7 support from our SOC team, powers rapid threat detection and response capabilities to protect organisations and agencies of all sizes from cybersecurity threats.
— Joseph Turner, Director, ActiveEye Product Management, Motorola Solutions
To learn more, visit: www.motorolasolutions.com
