White paper explores security aspects of 5G

5G Americas has published a white paper that explores enhancements in 5G technologies that have been developed to address current and emerging cybersecurity threats in commercial networks.

The 3GPP has been working on the standardised development of these security issues, which include measures for encryption, mutual authentication, integrity protection, privacy and network availability of:

• a unified authentication framework that enables seamless mobility across different access technologies and support of concurrent connections;
• user privacy protection for vulnerable information often used to identify and track subscribers;
• secure service-based architecture and slice isolation optimising security that prevents threats from spreading to other network slices;
• improving SS7 and Diameter protocols for roaming;
• adding native support for secure steering of roaming, enabling operators to steer customers to preferred partner networks;
• improved rogue base station detection and mitigation techniques.
   

“One aspect that cannot be overlooked in our journey to a secure 5G is the evolution of best common practices, people, processes and tools built on the success of 4G networks,” said Sankar Ray, Lead Member of Technical Staff, AT&T and co-leader of the white paper working group.

Sophisticated network slicing in 5G potentially expands the attack surface through which malware can be introduced. However, new 5G safeguards isolate these slices through multiple layers of the network and provide end-to-end security with a common authentication framework.

“Moving to network slicing and Massive IoT, the threat surface becomes broader, requiring even more vigilance with the proliferation of the massive quantity of devices and sensors,” said Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas.

The white paper, ‘Evolution of Security in 5G’, can be downloaded here.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/sdecoret

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