The increase in distributed computing and M2M traffic also means that security will need to follow people and data, rather than centralized control points.
more IoT devices are connected and brought online, it will open up new attack surfaces for cybercriminals to exploit. Businesses need to be aware of what devices have access to sensitive information and make sure they have visibility of and into them. Given the evolution of the radio, network, systems, and application architectures, it is also a new attack surface for criminals to exploit at the mobile network operator level.
It requires cyberthreats to be handled holistically in conjunction with edge computing and cloud computing
Clearly, data exfiltration is likely to see a steep increase, especially as we see more enterprises start to deploy work-from-home policies as the norm rather than as a response measure to the global pandemic. There needs to be a strong understanding of the value of the data, and how to protect it in the public cloud.
IoT devices can collect an enormous amount of data, and analyzing it effectively could hold a great deal of value for businesses. IT Security leaders need to make sure that the edges of their network are just as protected as the central sites. The increase in distributed computing and machine-to-machine traffic also means that security will need to follow people and data, rather than centralized control points, into the hybrid cloud.
Cybersecurity will become more complex and multidimensional
The new complexity of 5G networks and edge computing makes security more important than ever for telecommunicators. Network operators need to make sure their environments are trusted, preventing themselves from supply-chain style attacks, insider threats or network-enabled data leaks. Most network operators will build this new offering by partnering with a single large provider to get their 5G network ready. But in turn, the various components providers, from the Radio Access side to the back-end Customer Management systems will be very diverse. This represents multiple threat vectors from a security point of view, with a lot of suppliers, partners, and contractors gaining access to sensitive information.
Operators will need to partner with 5G vendors and integrators to make sure the end-to-end deployment addresses security holistically, across all the layers (physical, network, systems, software, cloud). Enterprises are end-clients, they need to trust the service provider to adequately protect and secure the service, which should focus on the devices, such as the apps running on it and more importantly, the data they want to protect.
National networks would pose high threat levels
5G networks can stream large quantities of data into and out of places like government buildings, manufacturing plants and sensor-laden environments of all kinds. The key change is that the 5G network pipe is no longer fully controlled by the organization, making it possible to potentially leak information that is large enough to make fast bulk transfers a reality. Governments and critical infrastructure industries should assess and tackle the entirety of potential security issues prior to the largescale implementation of the 5G technology.
Given the connectivity and latency boosts offered by 5G, employees looking to work remotely are likely to choose their 5G-enabled personal devices rather than potential unsecured public Wi-Fi connections. But whether network activity is taking place over 5G, 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi or corporate LAN; CISOs need to elevate their thinking beyond the specific transport network, to tackling it from an information protection perspective.
5G can also potentially circumvent legacy security solutions – particularly those based around hard-wired Internet connections. Adopting a behaviour-based riskadaptive protection approach that continuously assesses risk and adaptively enforces security policies can lead organizations to have more effective protection against data breaches.
TheauthorSurendraSinghisSeniorDirectorand CountryManageratForcepoint