Telecom
The Importance of Maintaining Network Visibility for your Organization
Organizations have become heavily dependent on their network systems. These device assemblages and interconnections are vital to communications within businesses, and between businesses and the outside world.
But these networks are often at risk of being sabotaged or exploited by ill-intentioned agents. These malicious actors may seek out vulnerabilities within networks and work through them to strike at their target entities.
If companies are going to reduce the chances of being hit by cyberattackers, they will have to gain greater visibility of their networks, so they can monitor the goings-on across them, and take measures to strengthen their defenses.
Network Visibility Defined
Network visibility is being able to access, track, and analyze all components of a network, including the devices and the data that passes between them.
Essentially, it means that you are able to evaluate aspects of a network such as its traffic, performance, applications, managed resources, and data.
In pursuing network security, IT teams seek to identify where data is coming from, where it’s going to, the purpose and type of data, the quantity of data, and whether it’s authorized or not.
In order to achieve network visibility, organizations will have to find ways to monitor network activity with as much detail and consistency as is possible. They can do this with various tools designed for this purpose.
A key issue in network visibility is defining the extent of the network’s reach, and thus, the breadth of monitoring that needs to be done. With more employees working remotely, networks may extend well beyond their employer’s physical offices. All devices plugged into the network need to be visible, regardless of where they are.
Why Organizations Need Greater Network Visibility
Perhaps the most obvious advantage that companies gain when they have greater visibility of their networks is that it lets them detect security concerns or breaches early enough to remedy them.
The nature of cyber threats continues to evolve. And each year, organizations across the world devote a significant portion of their budgets to securing themselves against those threats. Unfortunately, may don’t pay enough attention to shoring up their defenses. As a result, they may fall victim to cyberattacks.
Available data suggest that cybercrime cost businesses more than $1 trillion in 2020. That amount includes both spending on cybersecurity and losses due to cyberattacks. The figure could reach $10 trillion by 2025.
When companies have a better view of what goes on in their networks, they can detect vulnerabilities and breaches, and fix them before they morph into costly incidents.
But the benefits of network security do not merely reside with seeing off cyber threats. Inefficient data transmission through networks is a concern as well. When data clogs up a path, the network may underperform.
Greater network visibility enables IT teams to spot this problem. They could fix it by updating the firmware of the device concerned so that it has a better reaction to network congestion.
Sometimes, networks may underperform because unauthorized devices or software have been plugged into them. This is often not done by ill-intentioned agents; it could simply be employees using company resources when they shouldn’t be doing so. If their employer has greater visibility of their network, they can detect such unauthorized software or devices and remove them.
There could be any number of other problems that a network may have. Whatever they are, it certainly helps to be able to review the entirety of the network, as it could enable the affected organization to discover what those problems are, and quickly troubleshoot them.
Contemporary Challenges To Network Visibility
As businesses begin to realize the importance of network visibility, more of them will take steps to make it a reality within their domains. However, they may encounter certain impediments that prevent them from achieving a reasonable range of vision across their network.
One of these problems is the use of multiple vendors for networks and network components. Organizations go the multi-vendor route as a cost-cutting measure. However, besides actually increasing their costs, the multi-vendor approach also makes networks more complex, thus making them difficult to manage. Ultimately, it could reduce the degree of network visibility that an organization can achieve.
Challenges could also arise when a company operates with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. While employees will like to work in environments where this policy is in place, it could bring about difficulties in network management. IT teams will need to work out a network visibility strategy that takes devices not owned by the employer into consideration.
Remote work also makes broad network visibility harder to achieve. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, more companies have had to make their employees work from home. Their devices will be connected to their employer’s network from remote locations, often on a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Because these devices aren’t as firmly controlled as those owned by companies, things like passwords or access keys are always at risk of being stolen by malicious actors, who could use them to access companies’ networks. Given this danger, it’s important that remote access is covered by network visibility setups, even if it’s sometimes difficult to accomplish this.
How To Maintain And Improve Network Visibility
Network threats may either be external (taking advantage of vulnerabilities that may be externally exploited) or internal (resident within the network). Full network visibility will have to include both these fronts.
There are various technologies that may be used to accomplish a wide, far-reaching view of network setup. But these tools may require the input of a trained IT team to operate as they should.
When developing a visibility strategy, it’s important to work with network security experts that will make implementation and monitoring easier.
Layer3 can provide you with the expertise your organization needs to gain comprehensive network visibility. Our consultants and engineers have a deep knowledge of network infrastructure. They leverage this to provide best-in-class solutions that make your IT setup function optimally.
If you would like to find out more about our network security solutions, click here.
Telecommunications operators have resumed full SIM swap and related services following a four-week nationwide outage linked to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)’s migration to a new verification platform.
The outage rendered millions of subscribers unable to perform SIM-related tasks such as swaps, replacements, and activations.
Operators in the industry say the disruption began on June 26, 2025 when telcos temporarily halted SIM registrations and swaps due to unforeseen technical challenges during the transition to NIMC’s upgraded identity verification system.
The migration was mandated to enhance the integrity and efficiency of national identity management but caused major service interruptions across all Nigerian networks.
However, July 21, both MTN and Airtel confirmed via their social media handles that SIM swap services have now fully resumed.
MTN announced: “SIM swaps have now resumed. We can confirm that NIMC services are fully operational and appreciate their support in the migration to a new platform for NIN verification services for the telecommunications industry.
In a public update issued via its MTN Nigeria Support handle on X (formerly Twitter), MTN confirmed that SIM swaps have now resumed.
Telecom operators complained that the portal was unreliable or inaccessible, which resulted in the suspension of SIM swaps, number porting, and new SIM registrations, even though NIMC maintained that the platform was operating as intended.
Unexpected technical difficulties arose during the switch to the new platform, according to the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria.
Real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and network migration was impacted by these issues.
“Unexpected technical difficulties have surfaced, impacting real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and porting, following a recent directive from the National Identity Management Commission mandating Mobile Network Operators to transit to a new identity verification platform,” ALTON stated in a previous joint statement signed by Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, and Damian Udeh, publicity secretary.
The World Bank has affirmed that 84 per cent of adults in low-and middle-income economies, including Nigeria, own personal mobile phones.
The bank in its Global Findex 2025 report said mobile phone ownership was widespread and nearly everywhere. It said data from the Global Findex 2025 Digital Connectivity Tracker, revealed that “86 per cent of adults worldwide, and 84 per cent of adults in low- and middle-income economies, own personal mobile phones.”
The report pointed out that mobile phones and the internet had become widespread and essential to daily life in every economy around the world.
A earlier overview had indicated that Nigeria had a high mobile phone penetration rate, with estimates around 85 per cent to 87 per cent in 2024.
This translates to over 200 million mobile connections, making Nigeria a leading market in Africa for mobile phone ownership and usage. While the overall penetration is high, there’s a growing trend towards smartphone adoption, with forecasts predicting over 140 million smartphone users by 2025.
According to DataReporter, a total of 150 million cellular mobile connections were active in Nigeria in early 2025, with this figure equivalent to 64.0 per cent of the total population.
However, note that some of these connections may only include services such as voice and SMS, and some may not include access to the internet.
There were 107 million individuals using the internet in Nigeria at the start of 2025, when online penetration stood at 45.4 percent. Nigeria was home to 38.7 million social media user identities in January 2025, equating to 16.4 percent of the total population.
These headline stats offer a great overview of the “state of digital” in Nigeria at the start of 2025, but in order to make sense of how digital trends and behaviours have been evolving over time, we need to dig deeper into the data.
According to the World Bank, “as of 2024, individual ownership of mobile phones reached 86 per cent of adults worldwide.
“For many people, barely an hour goes by without their using a mobile device to make a call, ext a friend, read the news, access business information, post a meme on social media, pay for something, play a game, engage with a colleague or a customer, or search for information.
“As access to and use of digitally connected technologies increase, people, businesses, and governments place an increasingly high priority on online interactions. “Digitally connected technologies have clear, well-documented benefits.”
It further highlighted that access to mobile phones and the internet was associated with reduced poverty, increased consumption, and more employment for individuals in lowand middle-income economies.
“Women also experience these benefits, as internet access enables access to flexible jobs3 and has been shown to increase female labor force participation. “Mobile phones also facilitate information sharing.
For instance, in agricultural contexts, farmers’ access to real-time prices and buyer demand data can inform their decisions on where to sell, enhancing market efficiency and reducing the distances they would otherwise travel to get the best return for their product and time.
“Internet access also helps create jobs and aids individuals and countries in exporting goods and services,” it added. The World Bank further noted that owning a mobile phone furthermore enabled financial access through mobile money and other mobile financial services.
It added that these financial accounts and services, typically offered by mobile network operators or fintech firms and accessed via networks of local agents, were associated with lower rates of poverty, increased consumption and savings,and greater resilience to economic shocks.
Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today announced that it has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP), marking the 16th consecutive time the company has received this recognition.
Sophos has been recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) since the inaugural publication for this category in 2007.
Sophos’ market-leading endpoint security solutions include Sophos Endpoint powered by Intercept X, Sophos Extended Detection and Response (EDR/XDR), and Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR).
Over 300,000 organizations trust Sophos endpoint security solutions to defend against cyberthreats, including advanced remote ransomware attacks and active adversaries.
Unique to Sophos, the solution includes adaptive defenses that automatically disrupt attackers by dynamically adjusting protection levels based on threat context.
“Sophos’ strength lies in its prevention-first strategy, designed to stop breaches before they start, adapt defenses in real time, and strengthen detection and response when it matters most,” said Kyle Falkenhagen, SVP, Product Management, Sophos. “We believe that receiving this recognition in the highly competitive endpoint security market for 16 consecutive reports reflects our relentless focus on developing innovative solutions that stay ahead of the global threat landscape and the adversaries we face every day.”
Sophos and Secureworks: The future of protection, detection, and response
Following Sophos’ acquisition of Secureworks in February 2025, combining two leading and complementary portfolios to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions for small, midmarket and enterprise organizations.
Secureworks Taegis XDR customers can use Sophos Endpoint to elevate their cyber defenses, at no additional charge, delivering both improved protection and return on investment.
The integration of Secureworks also adds a new Counter Threat Unit (CTU) to the Sophos X-Ops advanced threat response joint task force, further expanding the rich threat intelligence that informs all customers’ defenses.
Backed by Sophos’ advanced security technologies and a broad network of intelligence contacts and partners, the CTU plays a critical role in identifying and tracking threat actors and analyzing anomalous activity, uncovering new attack techniques, threats, and major shifts in the threat landscape.
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