The Threat Landscape facing 5G

How will 5G alter security and trust issues within the network and for users? Yes, there will be new security techniques and technologies created. For example, we are going to need new quantum safe encryption algorithms for the new radio air interface, and network slicing will require universal security to ensure the integrity of each individual slice, with each slice having its own security attributes.

However, many of the necessary components already exist today. For example, NFV security is on-going and will port over to the 5G security landscape. There are also a number of security options available to operators today that are not being implemented. For example, 3GPP prescribes a security gateway specification, yet outside of Europe very few operators have implemented it.

The message is: get some of the basics right - including the human element - and we could eliminate up to 90 per cent of current security problems without having to look at new technologies and approaches.

Filmed at: ETSI 5G Network Infrastructure Summit, Nice, 6 April, 2017