Critical Infrastructure Protection: How Mobility Data Strengthens Cybersecurity

Introduction

From ransomware attacks against pipelines to the 2015 Ukraine grid breach, cyberattacks on infrastructure have proven they can disrupt entire regions, cascade across dependent systems, and cost billions in damages. Protecting power, water, transportation, and communications assets is no longer just about guards and fences; it’s about anticipating and neutralizing digital intrusions that can have physical consequences.

Many organizations still operate with cyber and physical security in separate silos, but adversaries increasingly move across both. Nation-state groups conduct reconnaissance online while probing facilities on the ground. Criminals use compromised credentials and insider recruitment alongside cyber exploits. To defend against these blended threats, infrastructure operators need visibility that connects digital indicators to the real world.

Mobility data provides this link. By correlating cyber events with location intelligence, security teams have better intelligence to attribute threats, strengthen network defenses, and continuously monitor for location-based risks.

The Critical Infrastructure Landscape

Presidential Policy Directive 21 defines 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose disruption would devastate national security and economic stability, from energy and water to financial services and healthcare. These sectors are deeply interconnected. A successful cyberattack rarely stops at the first target; when attackers compromised Ukraine’s grid, cascading effects disrupted water treatment, telecom, and transportation.

The urgency is growing. Cyber incidents targeting industrial control and operational technology (OT) systems rose 30% in 2024, while 73% of OT organizations reported cyber breaches that disrupted operations. Groups widely assessed as possibly state-sponsored, such as Volt Typhoon, have been observed conducting stealthy intrusions, harvesting credentials, and mapping both IT and OT environments in government, military, and public sector orgs. These operations are designed to establish persistence inside critical systems so they can be disrupted or exploited during times of geopolitical tension. In this environment, a firewall log or intrusion alert is only part of the story. Security teams need contextual intelligence to distinguish ordinary remote access from coordinated, well-resourced intrusion attempts.

How Mobility Data Enhances Critical Infrastructure Security

Mobility data bridges the gap between cyber and physical security by providing integrated visibility into how people and devices move through both virtual and real-world environments. This location intelligence enables security teams to detect threats that would otherwise remain invisible across both domains.

• Cyber-Physical Threat Attribution: Mobile device identifiers help cybersecurity teams attribute digital attacks to real-world activity. When security operations centers (SOCs), centralized teams that monitor an organization's security, detect network intrusions, or reconnaissance, mobility data can reveal whether these cyber activities correlate with physical presence near target facilities. This attribution capability is crucial for understanding whether detected cyber threats represent opportunistic attacks or coordinated campaigns that include physical surveillance components.
• Network Security Enhancement: Mobile IDs connected to network access events provide additional context for cybersecurity investigations. When devices access corporate networks or industrial control systems, mobility data can help verify whether the access originated from expected locations and followed normal patterns. Anomalous network access from devices with unusual location patterns may indicate compromised credentials, unauthorized access, or insider threats that traditional network monitoring alone cannot detect. Moreover, mobile IDs can be enriched to IPs, providing more intelligence on the signals under investigation.  
• Location-Based Risk Monitoring: Organizations can monitor when devices associated with personnel or contractors travel to geopolitically sensitive regions, sanctioned countries, or high-risk areas. This capability is particularly valuable for infrastructure operators with government contracts or international operations, enabling compliance monitoring and early warning when devices enter regions that may present security, regulatory, or operational risks. Location-based alerts help security teams assess whether travel patterns align with authorized business activities or may indicate potential security concerns.

Where Does Venntel Fit In?

The biggest hurdle to working with location data for the above use cases is that it can require enormous resources. Acquiring the raw location data and building the necessary infrastructure to process it would cost a company millions. Venntel simplifies this.

Our goal is to make it easier for teams to work with this necessary data by delivering pre-processed location intelligence solutions purpose-built so that organizations can deploy immediately. Venntel works with opt-in consented location data from mobile applications and enriches it with advanced analytics, forensic verification, and standardized data formats. This approach allows security professionals to focus on threat analysis rather than data engineering challenges. With deep expertise in both mobility analytics and infrastructure protection, Venntel helps organizations implement location-based security capabilities quickly and cost-effectively, transforming what was once a complex technical challenge into a straightforward security enhancement.

Venntel also correlates mobile ID to other identifiers, providing crucial context for cybersecurity investigations. When security teams detect suspicious network activity from specific IP addresses, our mobility data can reveal the physical location and movement patterns of associated devices. This helps distinguish between legitimate remote access and potential security threats, enabling faster and more accurate threat assessment.

Conclusion

Critical infrastructure is too important to rely on siloed monitoring. Cyber intrusions today don’t just steal data — they can cut power, poison water, or ground transportation systems. Protecting these assets demands cybersecurity intelligence enriched with real-world context.

Mobility data provides that missing layer. By linking mobile IDs, hashed emails, and IPs to behavioral patterns, Venntel helps infrastructure operators move from reactive alert handling to proactive, intelligence-driven defense.

For organizations charged with safeguarding essential systems, mobility data isn’t just an enhancement — it’s becoming a necessity. Contact us today.