Author: Andrew Hollister, Senior Director, Labs R&D and Advisor to the CSO, LogRhythm
The successful growth of Industry 4.0 is dependent on a secure and trusted telecoms ecosystem. As 5G adoption increases and B2B organisations deploy 5G-dependent solutions, attack surfaces are growing while telcos face an increasingly complex operational environment. The challenge for telcos is that the network is the foundation for the fourth industrial revolution and at growing risk of cyber-attack.
Performance, Reliability & Security
While 5G means faster speeds across personal devices, home security systems and other consumer applications, the real opportunity for telcos is B2B. This however puts greater demands on the network in terms of performance, reliability, and security.
Consumers may be predominantly focused on the performance benefits of 5G – how fast they can download or upload content is often the primary, if not sole measure of success. Those same performance benefits are inherent enablers for Industry 4.0, but whilst manufacturing and other industry will adopt 5G for performance reasons they will be equally occupied with both reliability and security. For example, leveraging 5G as the networking foundation for healthcare devices, or autonomous robot processes is highly dependent on a network that is both performant and reliable.
Research firm IDC estimates that 152,200 IoT devices will connect every minute by 2025. This is far different from serving a finite number of subscribers and addressing their potential vulnerabilities. The entire telecoms ecosystem, from global carriers through to local service providers, needs to prevent unauthorised access, ensure secure and reliable data transmissions, and monitor a much larger and more dynamic attack surface.
Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have an opportunity to play a critical role in Industry 4.0 if they can provide a secure foundation for new applications and services. The expectation is growing that the underlying network should be secured by the telco provider. If not, they risk being side-lined and reduced to basic infrastructure providers rather than core digital enablers.
Focus on Security
The first step for many telcos will be to shift their thinking about cybersecurity to match new enterprise expectations. They really need to be “security-first” and plan solutions from the ground up with security being central to every solution. Their enterprise customers will demand and need to see proven reliability and security capabilities before investing in a transformation journey with a telco.
Previous broadband cellular network standards have suffered from security as an afterthought – perhaps in common with many other technologies – other features, or time to market has been prioritised over security. The 5G specification was designed with additional security measures compared to previous, but the onus remains on the network operators to implement those measures.
The next step is to address vulnerabilities and emerging threats with new technologies. Over the years, we’ve seen telcos impacted by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware and a growing number of cases of SIM Swap fraud. The adoption of 5G does not remove these threats, and will no doubt add more vectors for attack, not least in the form of 5G’s heavy reliance on Software Defined Networks (SDN). They will need to demonstrate how they can effectively manage today’s risks whilst at the same time keeping abreast of new threats, as well as implementing the security features provided by the 5G specification.
Detection and Response
When we consider the variety of scenarios that Industry 4.0 makes possible and combine that with the rollout of 5G as the networking foundation for those scenarios, it signals a step-change in both management complexity and potential opportunities for bad actors.
Continual monitoring, together with rapid detection and response will become essential in these mission-critical environments. Reducing the mean time to detect and respond to attacks in these environments will require Telcos to scale-up their application of machine-based analytics that use scenario modelling, behavioural modelling, and machine learning. Whilst there is nothing such as a silver bullet for these challenges, wide visibility throughout the network remains an important part of an overall defensive strategy.
A Secure Foundation for Innovation
The global 5G services market size is estimated to reach $414.50 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 43.9% from 2021 to 2027, according to Grand View Research. For telcos, this is a massive opportunity to create new value from their network assets if they can offer a secure foundation to some of the most demanding industry segments. If they are able to deploy and secure 5G solutions, they will play a crucial role in the transformation of how entire industries operate.
Sources
https://www.cshub.com/mobile/articles/security-standards-for-5g
https://www.wired.com/story/5g-more-secure-4g-except-when-not/
