Many cybersecurity issues are affecting 5G. In this article, we will be focusing on the 3 most severe ones – latency, passive eavesdropping and user impersonation.
Since 5G is not simply a faster version of 4G, but rather, an entirely new network architecture, it opens the door to entirely new security models for user privacy, identity management, and threat detection.
Britain disagrees with the United States on the Huawei security risk on UK 5G network indicating that the risks involved in the use of the Chinese-manufacturer’s equipment was “manageable.”
China Mobile’s growth in 5G subscribers has been consistent. The company has gone from 2.55 million subscribers In Dec 2019 to 6.74 million in Jan 2020, and hopes to reach 70 million 5G subscribers by the end of 2020.
The Chinese embassy in France indicated that discriminating against Huawei by selecting 5G network equipment based on the country of origin was blatant discrimination and industrial protectionism and hinted of possible retaliation.
Top Chinese telecom operators have jointly introduced a new 5G messaging service based on the GSMA RCS standard that seeks to replace WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app.
According to anonymous sources, the French authorities have decided to approve the use of Huawei equipment but only in non-core parts of the 5G network.
Reasonable security is required for 5G IoT devices under new California and Oregon IoT security laws but it’s up to manufacturers to interpret the requirements and develop standards.
IoT market pushed by 5G connection is expected to grow fast and occupy $6.285 billion by 2025, the next shift will be to move users towards edge computing with devices getting stronger and cheaper to produce.
5G networks provide lots of benefits and also unknown security risks. Organizations need to change their threat models to increase visibility, security awareness and control of the endpoints.
