FEATURE: MOBILE SECURITY
faster Internet access. However, 5G networks
are designed with account of requirements
to communication of various types of
connected devices and are expected to be
as flexible as possible. While network slicing
achieves the goal of increasing speed and
enables operators to offer a wider range of
monetisable services to their customers, it
will make network management significantly
more complex.
In doing so, it will add to the existing issue
of incorrectly configured core networks;
an issue which continues to plague the
telecoms industry.
“When performing security analysis,
whether of a mobile operator’s network or a
corporate information system, we routinely
find configuration flaws directly impacting
security. Even now, not every operator
succeeds in securely configuring their core
network and protecting it from all angles.
“As SDN and NFV technologies are
implemented as part of efforts to build a
network slicing architecture, administration
will become even more difficult. Flexibility
in 5G networks is achieved by increased
complexity and number of configurations
and as a result, the probability of errors that
cause vulnerabilities increases too.”
The rise of the IoT
Another unique attribute of 5G is that the
main subscribers of the networks will not
be people, but IoT devices. By 2020, there
will be about 20 billion such devices, which
brings its own challenges for the network
because at the same time, the number of
attacks on the IoT is increasing too.
Jones said: “Device protection is poor and
malware distribution is easily scalable. In the
last year alone, Positive Technologies experts
found 800,000 vulnerable devices. Mirai was
an example of the destructive capacity of a
large botnet. To avoid a new Mirai that can
leave regular users without communication,
5G network operators will have to develop
new threat models more attuned to diverse
device types.”
In support of these findings, a new study
from Cradlepoint, a global leader in
cloud-delivered LTE and 5G Ready wireless
network Edge solutions, has revealed that
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businesses expect 5G to be a major part
of their technology roadmap but have a
long way to go before they are ready to
implement a solution.
The study, carried out at the 5G World
Summit in London, reveals that 78% of
organisations think 5G and Gigabit-Class LTE
may impact or already has made an impact
on their technology roadmap in the next
one–two years.
However, only a fifth (21%) say they are
fully prepared for adoption and nearly half
(46%) revealed they have made only minor
or no preparations at all to implement 5G.
The challenge of implementing high
performance wireless technology may also
be magnified by a limited understanding of
the key differences between LTE/Gigabit-
Class LTE and 5G. Most respondents (79%)
report they have limited or no understanding
of how the technologies differ. Similarly,
82% said they did not understand how
Gigabit LTE applies to their organisation.
Security concerns may also
limit speed of 5G adoption
Nearly three quarters of respondents (73%)
also stated that concerns around security
have the potential to limit how quickly their
organisation adopts 5G. But with almost the
same number of respondents predicting that
security concerns will not impact 5G adoption
(9%) as those who think it already has (8%),
there appears to be no uniformity on the issue.
“Businesses need to define their pathway
to 5G as a matter of urgency, but many
are unsure where to begin,” said Jason
Wells, Vice President and General Manager
EMEA at Cradlepoint. “Gigabit-Class LTE, for
example, is a mature, higher performance
expansion of the 4G LTE network offering
theoretical download speeds of at least 1
Gbps. It’s a wireless option that businesses
should be considering now – it can be
enhanced gradually as businesses move
down the pathway to full 5G connectivity.”
“Without sufficient planning and
engagement with these ‘pathway’
technologies, businesses may find their
ability to adopt 5G is delayed and they could
lose ground on 5G-ready competitors as a
result,” concluded Wells. n
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