IPv6, or Internet Protocol version 6, refers to the latest international communications standard used to facilitate interactions between Internet-connected devices. It was developed to supplement and eventually supplant the previous standard, IPv4, which could not provide sufficient new IP addresses to support the Internet’s growth. In addition to expanded address space, IPv6 offers such benefits as improved performance due to streamlined processing, superior mobile integration, and access to advanced security features, including more flexible authentication and encryption. Nevertheless, the shift from IPv4 to IPv6 has also caused new security problems. This transition’s partial and gradual nature is partly to blame, as organizations deploy insecure workarounds to connect different protocol networks. Furthermore, IT professionals tend to have less experience with the new standard, causing IPv6 networks to be less thoroughly secured (Fukuda & Heidemann, 2018). Integrating IPv6 data into its platform allows Security to implement the thorough monitoring necessary to address this emerging security gap.
The development of IPv6 began in the early 1990s due to the widespread recognition of IPv4’s address exhaustion problem. This problem stemmed from the protocol supporting a finite number of addresses that failed to anticipate the modern Internet’s mass audience. Using a 128-bit address enables IPv6 to provide a much larger quantity of addresses, supporting the Internet’s expansion far into the future. Although the allocation of IPv6 addresses began in 1999, the adoption rate was slow at first. It accelerated in the late 2000s, as regional Internet registries began to run out of IPv4 addresses. Although most Internet traffic still travels through IPv4 networks, the share of IPv6 is steadily increasing. In the first half of 2020, the percentage of Alexa Top 1000 websites reachable through IPv6 has remained between 25 and 29 (Measurements, 2020). It and other indicators of IPv6 adoption will continue to rise over time.
As the use of IPv6 networks continues to increase, so do malicious activities that exploit the growing network’s security flaws. The installation and proper configuration of the latest IPv6 security measures often lag behind the protocol’s adoption, creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited by bad actors. Most IT administrators are familiar with IPv4 but struggle to transfer their know-how to the new protocol, hindering their efforts to secure IPv6 networks. The use of tunneling protocols to link IPv4 and IPv6 networks exacerbates the confusion and creates a potential backdoor for injecting harmful data. Fukuda and Heidemann (2018) have shown that the amount of IPv6 scanners increases over time. While some of those scanners may be benign, others are indicative of incoming or ongoing attacks. Thorough IPv6 monitoring is required to keep up with the expansion of IPv6 traffic and the accompanying malicious activities.
Security’s most recent update enhances its platform with access to an IPv6 database consisting of millions of tracked addresses gathered since 2009. The availability of up-to-date information is ensured by a netblocks database feed that updates around 12,000 times per day. Security analysts can draw on this data to assess and counteract malicious threats in real-time. They can also map IPs to monitor IPv6 networks and detect and preempt potential threats. Given the constantly expanding and evolving nature of cybersecurity risks connected to IPv6 addresses, such active monitoring is an invaluable tool for anyone wishing to use the new protocol.
Although IPv4 and IPv6 continue to coexist, for now, the latter protocol’s advantages and the address shortage of the former mean that a full transition is a matter of time. However, IPv6 networks continue to be less secure than their IPv4 predecessors. While the scale of malicious activity in IPv6 networks is difficult to measure precisely, it appears to be increasing in synch with the networks’ expansion. Security’s latest platform update provides organizations with the accurate, up-to-date IPv6 data required for effective monitoring and threat containment.
References
Fukuda, K., & Heidemann, J. (2018). Who knocks at the IPv6 door? Detecting IPv6 scanning. In Proceedings of the Internet measurement conference 2018 (pp. 231-237). Association for Computing Machinery.
Measurements. (2020). World IPv6 Launch. Web.