There are three technological certainties in the next twelve to twenty-four months that your business must prepare for; fifth-generation wireless (5G) is coming, it will significantly change the entire cyber landscape, it will impact your network security. This blog is the second in a four-part series that examines the impending 5G transformation and how to secure your business now for the new cyber landscape.
Part Two: The Politics of the Fifth Generation Wireless (5G) Paradigm
Fifth Generation Wireless (5G) is a “technological paradigm shift, akin to the shift from the typewriter to the computer.” – MIT Technology Review
Fifth Generation Wireless (5G) will be the most significant leap in processing speed since computing began. The potential of 5G to transform almost every aspect of how industries operate, how we communicate, and how we navigate through both cyber and virtual environments, is vast and will have applications we’ve yet to dream up.
“5G will enable a fully connected, mobile, intelligent world,” says Asha Keddy, Vice President and General Manager, Next Generation and Standards, Intel. “It will touch every facet of our lives—including how we can be safer, smarter, or react quicker. It will transform industries,” she says. “We are now taking the power of connectivity and applying it to billions of things and to every industry.”
Keddy goes on to say that “We don’t talk enough about the behavioural changes that will occur. We should be rethinking paradigms.” As an example, Keddy says that when 5G and corresponding emerging technologies transform education, humans will build better societies. “When we use tech for the environment, conservation efforts will advance whether that’s precision farming or preventing poaching. There are so many innovations happening at a fast rate—AI, distributed data, immersive media, and when we put them together, she notes, the possibilities are boundless.”
However, like Uncle Ben said unto Spiderman, “with great power comes great responsibility,” so too with great technology. And, just like we’ve seen repeatedly played out in blockbuster superhero and science fiction movies, there is a great battle over who should control this powerful technology and the fear that it will be used for nefarious purposes.
Government espionage, spying, and the politics of 5G.
“There’s a concern that those devices that are connected to the 5G network are not going to be very secure from a cyber perspective. That presents a huge vulnerability for the system, because those devices can be turned into bots, for example, and you can have a massive botnet that can be used to attack different parts of the network.” – James Baker, former F.B.I. General Counsel
The leading 5G network provider, Huawei, has been in the news a great deal over the past two years with claims of government ties and spying being levelled at it. It matters little whether President Trump’s claims and the United States government’s distrust are real, or whether they’re falsified to strengthen their competitiveness in the fight for 5G supremacy. There is logic to keeping a corporation that appears to be obligated to a state with a history of cyber espionage, global data theft, and domestic spying out of the global digital network race. However, banning Huawei hardware won’t secure 5G networks.
Even without Huawei equipment, systems might still rely on software developed in China. Software from any country can be reprogrammed by malicious actors, remotely. Moreover, with the forecast exponential growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, many with little to no built-in security, any device connected to a 5G network will likely remain vulnerable to hacking. Dr. Darren Williams, CEO, BlackFog, states, “That if a company wanted to install a backdoor, it could – it would just be a matter of waiting for attention to die down and quietly patching the software therein. Once you’ve got the hardware in place, it’s going to be really important to monitor the software patches for those cell towers.”
Another real concern will be the almost unfathomable surveillance potential. 5G enables a more connected web of smart devices that can catalogue precisely where someone has been, where they’re going, and what they’re doing. “To give one made-up example,” says Steve Bellovin, Computer Science Professor, Columbia University, “might a pollution sensor detect cigarette smoke or vaping, while a Bluetooth receiver picks up the identities of nearby phones? Insurance companies might be interested. Paired with facial recognition and artificial intelligence, the data streams and location capabilities of 5G will make anonymity a historical artifact.”
Robert Spalding, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, warns that the threat is not limited to China or any one nation-state. “What is existential to democracy is allowing totalitarian regimes—or any government—full knowledge of everything you do at all times,” he said. “Because the tendency is always going to be to want to regulate how you think, how you act, what you do. The problem is that most people don’t think very hard about what that world would look like.”
5G will become part of each country’s critical national infrastructure.
“We’re kind of flying blind here.” – Senator Richard Blumenthal (concerning pushing ahead with 5G adoption without thoroughly assessing all the risks)
Every industry will rapidly interconnect once 5G is fully implemented – from hospitals to power plants to transportation systems. Sensitive and highly specific data will flow between devices, instantaneously. If malicious actors, whether state-sponsored or not, can access the data or control the systems, then irreparable damage can be done to individuals, businesses, and entire nation-states. This may sound reminiscent of the predicted Y2K technology apocalypse. It’s not apocalyptic; however, there will be new and more severe threats to cybersecurity, and the consequences in the event of failure or interference by a cyber attack will be significantly more serious.
The larger the size of the network, the larger its complexity, with more endpoints that need to be protected. “One of the biggest changes of 5G is the ability to distribute the power of advanced computing to other parts of the system that were normally maintained in the protected core of a network,” Ramjee Prasad, Director, Center for TeleInFrastructure, the University of Aalborg, explains. “This means that engineers will no longer be able to clearly segregate sensitive and less vulnerable parts of the system.” There’s little doubt, the transition to 5G will bring the challenges of any technological revolution along with it.
The 5G standard promises a multitude of benefits, but it will also come with risks. Infinitely more connected devices and elevated use of virtualization and the cloud will mean many more 5G cybersecurity threats and a multifaceted cyber attack surface. At ISA, we know cybersecurity. Our security specialists can help you assess, plan, and remediate now so that you’re ready for the 5G transformation.