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Unicus
Explore Unicus
Unicus™ was developed by UM Labs R&D to provide security for Real-Time Communications (RTC) services and applications using all industry standard protocols, including SIP, RTSP, SRTP and any network, application or content protocols. Standards such as SIP are widespread, virtually all modern Unified Communication platforms and all RTC platforms including Unified Communication/ business phone systems. SIP is used widely on telecom backbone networks and is at the heart of VoLTE and 5G networks. SIP is replacing legacy technologies in service delivery for fixed line connections and now will extend to consumer service delivery. Unicus™ built with defence in mind supports all encryption up to quantum cryptography.
Standards already in use from the OSI -7-layer model inclusive of SIP, RTSP, SRTP and others across any IP network is here is to stay, but securing these applications and services is a challenge. The complexity of the protocols means that standard security technologies cannot provide effective protection. Running these standards and the related protocols needed for RTC through a SASE or legacy firewall can hinder service provision. Some vendors have attempted to solve this problem by adding a SIP Application Level Gateway (ALG) to their products. ALGs create more problems than they solve, which has prompted NICC, a UK communications standards organisation, to publish guidelines calling for SIP ALGs to be disabled by default.
The lack of effective security for SIP leaves critical communications systems open to attack. A successful attack can result in:
- Loss of sensitive information, damaging a company’s reputation and resulting is fines for compliance violation
- Fraudulent calls, single attacks costing over $400K are common
- Denial of Service attack, resulting in complete shutdown of the system.
The UM Labs
R&D Solution
UM Labs R&D designed the Unicus platform to provide the security needed to enable organisations to benefit from IP based RTC while ensuring protection against the growing range of threats. The Unicus design team has many years of cyber security experience. This team was responsible for gaining the first ever Common Criteria EAL4 certifications for firewall products and for email security products. Common Criteria is an international security certification backed by the NSA and NIST in the USA, by the UK’s CESG and by governments in over 25 other counties. EAL4 is a certification level suitable for military use.
The Unicus design team drew on this experience to apply proven IP security principles to the problem of protecting all standard protocols as modules running natively in any cloud via the Unicus UOS. The resulting design applies 3 layers of protection. Now that the core is aligned to all advancing RTC, Unicus SVSS has extended to deal with IOT, CCTV, BodyCam and Drones running across IP networks but at the EDGE linked back to the core.
Adaptive
to Change
Unicus combines these 3 layers in a single framework protected by the UOS hardened operating system which ensures the highest level of security. The framework enables communication and feedback between the layers. So, for example a threat detected at the application level, such as a fraudulent call attempt can be blocked at the network level. Following the principle that the earlier a threat is blocked, the better, the blocking action can be pushed to the network infrastructure.
Unicus UOS both at the core and Edge are delivered as a single package ready for installation in any public or private cloud, on any popular virtualisation host in an organisation’s data centre. Unicus SVSS is available to be implemented via a Tool Kit for SVSS in a chip, which can be embedded into a product or an umbrella service linking back to the core UOS.
- Network level, protecting against low-level threats
- Application level, protecting against threats inherent in all standard protocols
- Content level, providing defence encryption services and protecting against impersonation attacks
