New security challenges await 5G planners, say APAC experts

As 5G networks are rolled out across ASEAN next year, a broad range of new cyber security threats will emerge, many of which will be different from the ones seen in 3G/4G networks, a panel of cyber security experts has warned.

Speaking on a forum at the Future of cyber security convention in Kuala Lumpur on 20 June 2019, Abid Adam, chief information security officer of Axiata Group, noted that the roll-out of 5G is guaranteed to bring about new attack vectors that target not only the network, but also consumers through new applications.

The security executive for the regional telco group argued that 5G goes beyond voice and connectivity, but because the technology is expected to be adopted by enterprises in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and automotive, cyber security must be looked into more holistically than before.

“5G will introduce new service models, which will in turn lead to a need for new trust models [between operators, enterprises and consumers],” he told delegates at the event.

Abid noted that even today, when 5G networks are not commercially available yet, enterprises are already struggling to keep up with new threat vectors, noting that the main threats were around ransomware a year ago, but today they revolve around crypto-mining and extortion.

“The threat landscape is evolving and what we’ve faced 12 months ago is very different from today,” he said.

“The challenge is, what are we doing as an industry to stay abreast with the threat landscape?”

Keeping up with the threat landscape is not the only major challenge. Another major challenge is the way 5G technology is designed, which essentially pushes a lot of the data and processing power to the edge of a network.

“What really changes in cyber security for 5G is in the way the network is set up,” said Abid. “5G uses network function virtualisation and software-defined networking and thus protection just can’t be at the core network level as data is being pushed further out.

“With 5G need, we will need to seriously re-look at how to architect cyber security as part of the network.”

Complicating these challenges is that the 5G world would require industries to work together through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). Abid added that while APIs can spur innovation because companies can connect to one another, they also expose backend systems to potential attacks.

Adding to this complexity is the fact that attacks today are smarter and may not involve high volume attacks, but that does not mean all is well. “The thresholds may be significantly lower but that doesn’t mean it’s not as dangerous,” he said.