This is part one of our series on Cybersecurity in 5G.
Mobile Devices have become the interface between us as humans and the digital world of online applications and information.
The fact that consumers use their mobile devices to perform increasingly more tasks, reflects the huge strides applications have made in delivering intuitive, engaging and convenient solutions for everything from banking, working and studying to food delivery, transportation, entertainment and recreation.
The ability of online services to perform every-day functions effortlessly with our Mobile Devices is imperative.
Couple this with 5G mobile technology and it is easy to anticipate that there will be many changes to how we live and do business in the future.
Generation 5
The 2020’s decade has ushered in the 5th generation of mobile technology. But most of the 5G deployments worldwide are 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) implementations, which is 5G radio using existing 4G infrastructure. In the fast-paced world of telecommunications, the shift from 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) to 5G Standalone (SA) networks is a game-changer because 5G SA is where the real magic happens.
And the magic of Mobile 5G Standalone technology is set to transform society as we know it by offering features such as:
- Higher data speeds
- Increased support for thousands of IoT Use Cases
- Massive device connectivity
- Direct Satellite to standard handset services
- Increased voice quality
- Ultra-low latency services
- Increased energy efficiency
- Tailored network service quality levels on demand
- Programmable network interfaces for enterprises and developers
- Increased security for consumers and enterprises alike.
This poses many opportunities for us as consumers, for governments and for businesses, but equally important is to understand what impact this will have on our society around our security and the protection of our data. To answer this question, we need to take a deeper look at cybersecurity in 5G.
Why should we worry about cybersecurity in 5G?
Data Protection is one important reason. The data that we share, whether personal, professional, publicly available or highly confidential, needs to be processed and treated with the necessary level of confidentiality. Additionally, there is also the protection of our own identities for privacy and fraud prevention reasons.
Security is also about protecting our devices from being hacked or hijacked, which could lead to the enterprise networks of our own employer our even our telecommunications service providers also potentially getting attacked.
Furthermore, there is the plethora of IoT devices everywhere. The security of critical infrastructure such as energy supply, water supply, transportation, health care and telecommunications are essential for the functioning of societies. Therefore, the security of critical infrastructure, which relies on IoT solutions, is of high importance with the advent of 5G. Hybrid and cyberattacks may potentially result in an existential threat to countries and their citizens.
Geopolitics and the existential threats of cyberattacks
Geopolitics are therefore also shaping the cyber threat landscape. The federal security departments of many national governments are looking very closely at 5G’s impact on cybersecurity.
National federal security agencies of many countries around the world have identified the value that 5G mobile cellular technology can and will have on their respective societies. Furthermore, if the adoption of this technology can be considered safe for use for governmental departments, which require a high level of security and confidentiality, then the 5G systems must be deemed secure by nature.
Federal Security Agencies such as the Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI) Germany, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the US are looking closely at 5G technology and are even involved in the 3GPP and GSMA standards definition working groups.
For these reasons, Telecommunications Standards Organisations work in collaboration with Federal Security Agencies of numerous countries worldwide to ensure that the mobile internet services, which we as consumers use, are as secure as possible.
The importance of Standards Organisations
But what do the Standards Organisations and Mobile Telecommunications Provider companies need to do to address these challenges and implement the strengthening of security as a priority in their 5G services?
To answer this question, we need to take a deep dive into the technical details of telecommunications networks.
5G System elements – Device, Radio and Core
There are three main 5G system elements, each of which can individually come under cyberattack. These are:
- User Equipment (our handsets/devices)
- 5G Radio Access Network (cell towers)
- Core Network (central control system for devices are connected to the network), and which provides the services that are being requested, such as data, SMS or voice.
It quickly becomes clear that with mobile networks in general, the attack surface is multifaceted. With 5G SA, additional security challenges have been introduced. Narrowing it down somewhat, we are going to focus on the third element in relation to 5G, which is the 5G Standalone (SA) Core Network and in particular the Signalling.
We will also differentiate between internal core network functions and external core network functions.
We will start with a brief look at the internal core network signalling and in PART 2 of this blog, we will look at the external core network functions, which provide the foundation for mobile roaming.
Deep dive into the technical details of mobile telecommunications
Signalling is a very important element of the Core Network functionality. It can be compared to the way the neurons in our brains use neurotransmitters to send signals and messages to cells in our body to perform different functions. The Core Network is like the brain, the individual network nodes or functions are the cells.
Mobile Telecommunications Systems rely on Core Networks and the accompanying Signalling Networks as one of their underlying service control mechanisms. Mobile 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE and even most of today’s 5G networks (5G NSA) use SS7 and Diameter Signalling protocols and networks to provide domestic and international roaming services to subscribers.
However, the SS7 and Diameter deployments are therefore susceptible to being hacked and misused for the unlawful tracking of consumers locations and even for the manipulation of consumers data. For a real-life demonstration of this, see Exposing The Flaw In Our Phone System (youtube.com). You’ll be amazed, I promise.
While the risks of fraud in SS7 and Diameter signalling solutions have always been present, the ever-increasing sophistication of attacks means stealing data and committing crimes through telecom infrastructures are rising threats.
In response, Mobile Operators are allocating increasingly more resources to bolstering defences – revenue in the network security market is expected to achieve a 10.30% annual growth rate over the next five years, with market volume reaching $40.75 billion USD by 2029.
3GPP for Mobile Communications Standards and Security by Design
When it came to 5G SA, the engineers of the standards organisation called 3GPP, which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications, had one very important requirement at the forefront at all times. That was to make Security-by-Design one of the main principles of the 5G Standalone specifications.
Many security features have been specifically designed to address the vulnerabilities and shortcomings of the previous network generations (2G, 3G & 4G/LTE). Concepts such as mutual authentication, zero-trust, and transport-level encryption have formed the foundation of 5G Standalone standardisation specifications.
Transport-level encryption refers to the use of Signalling and one of the outcomes of this work is that signalling messages need to be encrypted using TLS when being transferred between internal network elements. This imposes a significant overhead on network operations because encryption keys are required to encrypt and decrypt these messages every time they are routed from one element to another. This is nevertheless achievable and is being implemented by the mobile network operators in their own networks accordingly. Doing this will increase the level of security significantly.
When 5G Standalone starts to become prevalent in our daily lives, we will see these networks delivering the real value that we have been promised, but there is much work to be done to make these networks not only available and reliable, but also safe, secure and trusted.
In PART 2 of this blog we will focus on how two different Mobile Networks interact with each other to provide the service known as Roaming with focus on the current challenge, which we are facing, in striking the right balance between Security Measures and Business Objectives with 5G Standalone Roaming and the impact this has on the Mobile Roaming Industry.
Want to learn more about the balance between security measures and business objectives? Check out part 2 of the blog here.
