ENISA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity has published its Threat Landscape for 5G Networks report, assessing the threats related to the fifth generation of mobile telecomunications networks (5G).
This report complements the EU Member States report on EU-wide risk assessments on 5G security released in October 2019.
According to the report, ‚the technological changes introduced by 5G will increase the overall attack surface and the number of potential entry points for attackers:
- Enhanced functionality at the edge of the network and a less centralised architecture than in previous generations of mobile networks means that some functions of the core networks may be integrated in other parts of the networks making the corresponding equipment more sensitive (e.g. base stations or MANO functions);
- the increased part of software in 5G equipment leads to increased risks linked to software development and update processes, creates new risks of configuration errors, and gives a more important role in the security analysis to the choices made by each mobile network operator in the deployment phase of the network