\tLIVE FROM MOBILE 360 SECURITY FOR 5G, THE HAGUE: Canadian operator Telus highlighted the need for new approaches to network and service assurance in the 5G era, noting greater use of software in next-generation infrastructure increases vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n
Carey Frey, the operator\u2019s chief security officer (pictured), explained threats which exist today from organised crime or terrorist groups, among others, are not going to change with the move to 5G. \u201cThere are going to be people out there who are motivated to try and break into our networks and to attack the businesses and the customers that are using them.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the method such attackers use will change, he said: \u201cHow they do it is by exploiting vulnerabilities in software.\u201d As a result, \u201cwe\u2019re going to make 5G increasingly subject to these\u201d.<\/p>\n
Delivering a broad solution to protecting software is complicated because businesses are often taking small pieces of code from multiple sources to create an overall system, Frey explained.<\/p>\n
For operators, this creates a question around how they assure customers their network is safe. Frey stated enhanced mobile broadband it not a game changer in terms of security, suggesting that if you aren\u2019t able to access videos of cats on YouTube due to a security exploit, it is small fry compared with an attack which interrupts remote surgery.<\/p>\n
Different tack
\nDelivering the kind of assurance necessary for the latter example requires a shift away from current standards-based approaches: \u201cat the very high level of assurance, we\u2019re really talking about mathematically proven guarantees and third-party certification\u201d.<\/p>\n
The aircraft industry provides guidance on the direction Frey believes must be taken. He cited the scale of components required to construct an aeroplane as an example, stating the assurances required before people will trust that all are working correctly is a model for the mobile industry in terms of providing \u201ccustomers with the confidence that they can use that network safely\u201d.<\/p>\n
But this raises the question of \u201chow much is good enough\u201d?<\/p>\n
\u201cOur comfort zone as a global industry is sort of at the level of standards and basic metric claims. And that\u2019s ok, but honestly they don\u2019t really get the job done for what I think the new level of confidence is that we\u2019re going to be required to produce in order to gain the public\u2019s trust and confidence that we can safely operate this platform in cyberspace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Operators in future will need firm assurances from vendors regarding the provenance of software components, including where they came from and how they were designed to work, else there will be no means of assessing if a component is not working correctly and so if it is being used in an attack.<\/p>\n
To achieve this, Telus believes a global cybersecurity centre is needed for 5G, which brings together the work of standards bodies and individual regulators to provide a big-picture view covering the devices being used on operator networks; effective deployment of encryption; and access management.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always challenges in operationalising what the standards say, either from the vendor perspective or from the operator perspective\u201d, Frey said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LIVE FROM MOBILE 360 SECURITY FOR 5G, THE HAGUE: Canadian operator Telus highlighted the need …<\/p>\n
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