A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security

3Mobile Networks Security Landscape

Ahmed Bux Abro

VMware

3.1 Introduction

The mobile network started merely as a voice communication channel but has surpassed any other medium in history to become the center of our daily life, economy and governance. Future of societies and major economies such as Europe rely heavily on the mobile infrastructure where a direct financial and economic impact of the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) industry results in approximately 5% of GDP or hundreds of € billions [1]. The mobile population is going to hit 5.5 billion by the time 5G is officially launched in 2020 [2]. That means more connectivity and more information generation and sharing using the mobile networks.

As a result of the telecommunication boom and its critical role in the overall public and economic health, this industry will soon become a prime target for anti‐state and criminal actors who want to leverage this platform to disrupt its growth and in turn use it to launch attacks against a wider user base of mobile networks. Impacts of breaches in this new generation of the connected world can be huge and impactful, as happened recently in the case of the Yahoo massive data breach that impacted 1 billion users in a single attack or the LinkedIn 2016 breach that impacted 117 million, resulting in a leak of sensitive personal and professional data [3].

Mobile network security has gradually evolved in parallel to the evolution of the telecommunication industry. In ...