Intelligence Buy in

5G, the 5th generation wireless network touts a new level of speed and reliability. With the exponential growth of smart devices and the internet of things, current 4G networks are straining to meet bandwidth demand. 5G promises to deliver increased capacity and energy efficiency at a fraction of the cost. The telecom sector is viewed as one of the most vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks.

• According to a report from Efficient, 43% of telecom orgs have had a DNS-malware based attack.
• More people work from home now using telecoms services to stay in touch and run their businesses. Mobile phone data usage in the US grew by more than 50 per cent in March 2020. Considering the effects of COVID-19, it wouldn’t be surprising if these numbers have continued to rise.
• The growing volume of data transmissions, legacy technology, and signaling protocols, the increased role of cloud technologies and “old-fashioned” DNS and DDoS attacks are among the most common threats telcos need to dodge daily.

• Automated threat detection
• Self–learning systems
• Breach risk prediction
• Incident response
• Threat hunting
• Network security

Telecom players have both an exciting and complex time ahead.

• On the one hand, the industry is undergoing major transformations, new revenue opportunities and value streams.
• On the other hand, an increased presence of new assets (such as IoT devices) and increased pressure on the old communication protocols enlarges the defense perimeter every telco needs to create

Ultimately, to have strong and reliable 5G security mechanisms, we will need to:

• Switch from reactive security to proactive – one that relies on extensive monitoring and has predictive capabilities, powered by advanced analytics and AI.
• Be able to conduct proper risk assessments for current systems, decentralize and automate the core security requirements with appropriate tools and run even deeper assessments for emerging technologies such as IoT, 5G, and NFV among others powered by advanced analytics and AI.
• New capabilities from 5G also bring about new risks or another dimension of existing risks including:

New capabilities from 5G also bring about new risks or another dimension of existing risks including:

• Risk Factor 1: Exponential Increase In Attack Surface
• Risk Factor 2: Nonexistent IoT Security Standards
• Risk Factor 3: Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Makes Network Partitioning Complex