The dawn of 5G technology is upon us and this new wireless power promises to be a superior successor to 4G networks. With more devices connecting to more data, both enterprises and the general consumer will greatly benefit from 5G’s arrival. But how ready are businesses for this new era in connectivity and how secure is 5G?
AT&T Cybersecurity has just released its tenth Cybersecurity Insights Report: 5G and the Journey to the Edge, in partnership with IDC. This report highlights the many scenarios that will broaden connections among humans and machines more quickly and efficiently but also bring advanced attacks that can take down businesses, utilities, and even cities. It states: “5G will change where and how we harness compute power and promote unforeseen product and service innovation. Once 5G attains critical mass with a robust ecosystem, 5G will touch nearly every organisation, promising new revenue potential across a myriad
of industries. 5G will expand usage of edge computing, which locates network functions, applications, compute, and storage closer to end users, creating near real-time performance along with high bandwidth and low latency.”
Furthermore, the report outlines the many opportunities available to businesses to change the network, offload capabilities to operators and service providers, and engage assistance with security service providers to ensure business resiliency.
Having surveyed 1,000 C-suite professionals and security practitioners, most recognise that 5G is not just a faster 4G, and they are making strategic investments to secure this new, rapidly approaching frontier.
Some of the report’s key findings include:
- There is some 5G Confusion Amongst Business Leaders: 31% of respondents think that 5G is secure out of the box from the network provider with no additional security required
- Business Security Posture: Fewer than 10% of respondents feel that their security posture is fully prepared for the rollout of 5G
- Business Security Spend: Business leaders are spending close to a quarter of their budget on 5G security and will increase that spend in the next 12–18 months
- 83.2% of respondents believe attacks on web-based applications will be a challenge
- Top 5G Security Challenges: Respondents claim the top 5G security challenges are:
- Data privacy
- Security of data accessed by mobile endpoints
- The need for more robust, specific security policies
- Greater potential for DDoS attacks
The full report can be downloaded here: https://cybersecurity.att.com/resource-center/white-papers/cybersecurity-insights-report-tenth-edition
