5G Security will be needed for networks to deliver radically improved performance in several key areas: greater data throughput, lower latency, and the ability to support huge numbers of simultaneous connections. These capabilities are opening up new opportunities to use 5G in ways that have not been possible with previous generations of mobile telecommunication technology.
5G Security is multifaceted – it deals with security on different levels to address the issues raised by the new uses to which it can be put, and to deal with risks associated with the environment in which 5G applications and services will be delivered.
The 3GPP standards themselves, the documents produced by the security working parties of 3GPP, and technical white papers produced by vendors and others give detailed technical information about 5G security features. 3GPP itself highlights the following security improvements of 5G over 4G:
- Unified authentication (4G: access-dependent authentication)
- Flexible security policy to address more use cases (4G: a single security policy)
- Encrypted transmission (SUPI) to avoid IMSI leakage and protect user privacy.
To deliver the performance, 5G makes use of new network architectures that better support the use of cloud-based resources, virtualisation and network slices; resources are optimised to support specific services in a much more granular way than has been possible in the past, and a new radio interface delivers a step-change in capacity and speed.
It is expected that the number of different types of applications for 5G networks will be much greater than for 3G and 4G networks; the volume and diversity of devices that will connect to 5G networks will be greater too. These two factors have the effect of broadening the potential “attack surface” for 5G networks – introducing potential new risks. This was recognised early on by the community of companies and standards bodies developing 5G, so the 5G standards from 3GPP Rel-15 onwards include significant enhancements in the way security is designed into networks at a fundamental level, to enhance security in 5G networks. In addition, the mobile community has been working on security issues very closely with the wider ecosystem of suppliers, and likely users of 5G networks, and has considered the way that network features can complement and fully address the broader security context. It is expected that 5G networks will be more secure than previous generations of mobile networks, and robust enough to address any security risk in the connectivity domain.
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