Spectrum sharing opens a potential attack route

One aspect of spectrum sharing that’s receiving less attention than it should is security — specifically, potential problems brought on by the very attributes that makes this technology work. There’s a basic concept in computer network security: If you don’t want A to attack B, make it impossible for A and B to communicate. That’s why sensitive military communications systems do not have links to the internet. Experts realize that, even with the best firewalls and filtering, if a connection exists, the system is inherently less secure. That’s exactly the security problem that arises with spectrum sharing: It creates connections that could be compromised.

[Rysavy is president of Rysavy Research, a wireless network engineering firm]