How to deal with the new security challenges brought by 5G

Mobile network infrastructure has changed dramatically in just a few years. For example, the evolution from 3G to 4G enabled mobile infrastructure to deliver new data-centric services to consumers, such as rich multimedia, as well as enhanced content capabilities and services.

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5G will enhance the power and capacity of mobile networks to better support end-to-end environments, enabling our society to be fully mobile and connected. Typical use cases for 5G include significantly increased capacity and performance to support enhanced broadband access in dense urban areas, higher user mobility and the expanding Internet of Things, providing extreme real-time communications, highly reliable lifeline communications and broadcast-type services for a new generation of ultra-rich multimedia.

Advances in virtualization, automation, and orchestration, combined with new 5G network capabilities, will bring data and transaction decisions closer to the edge of mobile networks - the edge cloud. This will allow organizations to redesign their infrastructure to better meet the needs of digital transformation. Data and computing requests that once passed back and forth from the core for execution can now be processed and executed at the edge. This enables organizations to greatly enhance their ability to scale and increase the speed at which decisions and transactions are completed. With the edge cloud, innovation will no longer be limited by central data centers and public/private clouds.

5G networks are changing business

The telecom industry is already beginning to transform its business by taking advantage of these new opportunities, and they are just one of many. This will be the de facto approach for the next cycle of network computing. 5G connectivity and edge-based computing will enable digital transformation, bringing exponential growth in services and productivity to enterprises, and improved quality of life and highly customized and personalized experiences to connected consumers and citizens. The high-speed, low-latency nature of 5G also means that “always-on” business models can now be achieved without geographic constraints – away from the enterprise data center or cloud platform. Ultimately, hyper-connected devices with edge cloud will no longer be limited to the cloud alone, but will become a new hyper cloud where applications, data and services will run across the edge of the network.

Due to its enhanced performance, 5G is transforming wireless connectivity from a supplement to wired networks and centralized processing to a true replacement for wired and traditional networks. It will support a wide range of new interconnected network traffic from the development of IOT/IIoT sensors, devices and connectivity platforms, from headless sensors to connected cars, different use cases are entering a new hybrid smart city, into an umbrella network environment, physical and critical infrastructure and humans are directly interconnected. Use cases range from immersive entertainment and gaming experiences to robotics and manufacturing workshops, to industrial control in critical national infrastructure, to things like transportation, energy network management and healthcare. 5G brings a new era of digital transformation to businesses and industries that have lagged behind so far.

The impact of 5G on security

Once 5G is in place, end-to-end innovation – both in technology and in the network architecture that supports it – will rapidly transform mobile infrastructure into a platform and catalyst for value creation and service innovation. 5G’s “flat” architecture may increase mobile infrastructure’s exposure to cyber risks, especially as they are now part of an end-to-end IP core infrastructure. This extended means surface will consist of thousands or even millions of interconnected nodes that are highly susceptible to abuse.

Because of these vulnerabilities, and the transition to edge cloud, end-to-end security from the mobile core to the edge is imperative. This will drive the need to embed security features and capabilities directly into the edge, far beyond their typical state of being “bolted on” to traditional networks.

These extended, mobile and hyper-connected networks require a fabric-based security strategy that goes beyond the isolated security appliances and platforms previously deployed in static networks to cover and adapt to this expanded and evolving network. Achieving this requires protection that is broad, powerful, integrated and automated – just like the components of the network it needs to protect.

• Broad: Security solutions need to be deployed broadly enough to span all network environments and protect all devices.
• Powerful: Security needs to be able to keep up with bandwidth growth that is growing faster than Moore's Law, such as using Fortinet's virtual SPU technology to improve virtual firewall performance. It must extend capabilities beyond legacy stateful firewalls to include deep application security, inspection of encrypted traffic at digital speeds, and more.
• Integration: Security architectures need to correlate data across and between security layers, whether physical, logical, or virtual, to detect threats wherever they occur.
• Automation: All security tools need to be able to respond dynamically to detected events as a coordinated system without waiting for human intervention.

in conclusion

Organizations cannot wait to develop a strategy, they need to start planning now to ensure they have the technical and human resources to support and protect their 5G opportunities. Only a fully coordinated security strategy can protect the highly mobile and dynamic networks, devices and transactions of the future. Securing the massive amounts of data, network traffic and computing resources brought by 5G will require a higher level of speed and automation than most organizations currently have to ensure quality of service, the expected customer experience and adequate protection of data.

Fabric-enabled security platforms not only provide the comprehensive visibility, protection, detection, and automated response required for 5G networks, but also enable organizations to weave 5G security strategies back into a larger security framework. This includes bringing together mobility, edge cloud, public/private cloud, and traditional security solutions into a single, seamless, integrated system that can track and protect workflows, applications, and services that need to span the network, from mobile devices to data centers, regardless of where they are located.