The IDC report Fiber Optic Networks: Is Safety Just an Optical Illusion highlights the dangers of illegal optical tapping of fibre optic networks. As it is impossible to monitor an entire optical fibre network, the report recommends that critical and sensitive information should be encrypted.

Author of the report, IDC Research analyst Romain Fouchereau, said: “Fibre-optic cable networks have been deemed the fastest, most reliable and most secure way of transporting data through the network for decades. This reputation has now been proven wrong for several years with the arrival of new an inexpensive technologies making data theft easily available to hackers.

“Securing the inside network is not sufficient enough, data going from one site to the other can be intercepted and this security gap needs to be addressed”, he added.

Fibre optic networks can be hacked using methods such as splicing, splitter/coupler or curving, and non-touching optical hacking. Traditionally, these methods have been expensive and difficult to perform, but according to IDC, they are now becoming easier to do and harder to detect. This means the information has to be encrypted.

Thomas Meier, CEO of Swiss encryption vendor InfoGuard, said: “Optical hacking has been around for many years but few people are prepared to openly talk about the fact that fibre optic links are not as secure as the service providers would like us to believe.”

According to the report, Verizon and Deutsche Telekom have both experienced taps on their fibre optic networks, and the Hannaford supermarket chain saw a major optical hack and data breach that resulted in the theft of 4.2 million credit and debit card details.