5G is here: By the year 2023, it is estimated that 5G will enable fully autonomous “smart factories” that could add $1.5 trillion to $2.2 trillion annually to the global economy. But along with all the benefits 5G offers—including more security than previous wireless network technologies—cybersecurity challenges exist.
Unlike previous technologies, 5G delivers low latency and high throughput, and this capability opens the landscape for many industries to create new applications while supporting mission-critical services for their businesses and end users.
Assuring 5G services is vital: These new applications will be fulfilling mission-critical duties such as remote surgery, where any blip or failure could be detrimental to a patient’s life. Malicious attacks can increase quickly and multiply to degrade latency and/or even stop service.
This scenario is consistent with the most common form of cyberattack, distributed denial of service (DDoS), and 5G with its diverse ecosystem creates many more pathways for attack vectors. Although 5G comes with more secure and improved cybersecurity features than its predecessors—deeper security for layer 7 protocols with advanced ciphering algorithms, for example—enterprises must carefully consider a wholistic 5G implementation for configuration and monitoring.
In “Making 5G a Trusted Network: Part I,” NETSCOUT Chief Solutions Architect Dr. Vikram Saksena provides insights into the following topics:
- What is really missing from the 5G and cybersecurity conversation?
- The essential need to protect mission-critical 5G services
- The key elements necessary for making 5G a trusted network
Read Part II: Making 5G a Trusted Network - Devices
Agnes Mends Crentsil is a product marketing manager on NETSCOUT’s Technical Marketing team.