A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security

How We Are Living in The Era Of 5G? 

We are living in an era of 5G, and our everyday lives are becoming better and smarter at the same time. 5G offers unprecedented speed, low latency, and better range, which provides a better experience to the customers. The incorporation of 5G in all spheres from homes to industries, smart cities, agriculture and healthcare systems is trending in the contemporary scenario. 

The IoT, is thriving with 5G as devices can communicate easily and connected world, which was once considered as just a dream has become a reality. The 5G revolution has brought about innovations in autonomous vehicles, AR, and next-gen technologies. 

With the widespread adoption, security is also an important aspect in the 5G technology spectrum regarding data and service integrity, privacy, and obtainability within the 5G ecosystem. It is for this reason; the total value of the industry will touch USD 24.89 billion by the end of this decade. 

How Advanced is 5G from 4G? 

With progression from 4G to the advent of 5G, the advancements in connectivity have greatly improved. Let us have a look at all those aspects which have improved a great deal with 5G:  

Speed: There is a substantial improvement in speed of 5G. Although 4G offers speeds of up to 100 Mbps, 5G gives a speed 20,000 Mbps. These large volume of speed guarantees quicker downloads, streaming, and a better user experience. 

Latency: Another remarkable feature of 5G is the ultra-low latency. 5G latency (5 milliseconds) is significantly lower than the 4G (60-98 milliseconds). This is even important in the real time applications that are used through the live streaming like VR, remote surgeries, and online gaming. 

Capacity: 5G networks possess the ability to host larger number of connected devices at a given point in time. This is important in today’s IoT environment as billions of devices all over the world will be connected from industrial machines and smart homes sensors. 

What are the Notable Features of 5G Security? 

Encryption 

This protects user data from interception, eavesdropping, and tampering. The features of encryption are security key separation between the essential network segments. 

Privacy Protection 

In 5G networks, privacy protection is ensured through the use of encryption and various other techniques. These strategies guard against threats like IMSI/TMSI-catchers, affecting attackers commonly used for recognizing and tracking network subscribers.  

Authentication and Authorization 

This has a robust authentication mechanism for the verification of the identity of devices, users, and network elements. 5G doesn't need physical SIM for credentials, but supports certificates, pre-shared keys and tokens.  

Network Slicing 

This allows virtual network creations for diverse applications and services. For example, a company can make use of one network slice for high-priority employees, and another for low-priority employees. Each slice can be allocated precise security policies, helping to separate and protect data. 

NESAS

NESAS, guarantees the secure execution of telecom apparatus that is used by mobile operators in their networks, such as 5G. NESAS establishes security needs and rules for effective infra-audits.  

What is the Impact of 5G Security? 

Security is important for organizations with a digital existence and invested in telecom. The advances in tech in environments for example, IoT, virtualization, SDN,  

NFV, edge computing, and Industry 4.0, when met with broad yet worsening cybersecurity, will have a substantial influence on the functionality and security.  

Some 5G standards are flexible to allow an overlap of diverse types of virtual and physical elements amid the RAN and core network. Separating the RAN and core network function in the telecom environment is sure to affect the performance but is likewise accompanied by associated security impacts for example NFV, SDN, and edge computing-related issues. 

In the IT landscape, 5G security consequences can bring about reduced traffic perceptibility, where there is a shortage of WAN solutions such as Secure Access Service Edge could bring about some business traffic visibility. As the development of 5G and its aptitude to connect to a large volume of the device is directly connected to the augmented IoT use, the latter’s security implications similarly have an effect on the former.  

As IoT devices usually have had poor security, the susceptibility will allegedly expand to the security of the organizational framework combined with IoT and corresponding 5G tech. Hence, organizations requirement to deploy IoT security solutions to guarantee that their devices are protected.  

Coming To a Conclusion 

5G is prevalent for general adoptions, but security implications also attend it. Though, the 5G network trends contain many security features that decrease the prevailing threats in the 3GPP-based network, so administrations require to accept difficult security measures.  

Organizations implement 5G tech as a monitoring and control solution at distant locations, but their prevailing infra has a high-risk factor. So, there should be solutions that progressively organize IoT and other devices on 5G networks made for specific industry needs.  

SOURCE: P&S Intelligence