Summer 2021

Security and Trust in 5G and Beyond

5G has further increased the importance of cybersecurity. While network security has already been of high importance, the new usage scenarios enabled by 5G have dramatically increased the stakes. Just think of automated driving and IoT applications in factories, and it becomes clear that network security has become not only a central topic for the ICT domain, but for economy and society as a whole. In this issue of Eurescom message, we explore what is done in Europe to advance security and trust in 5G and beyond. We present selected research and innovation projects that have contributed to novel solutions for making 5G and future 6G networks more secure.

Downloadable edition in pdf format:
Eurescom Message - Summer 2021 [16 MB]

The cover theme of the magazine features the following contributions:

Security and Trust in 5G and Beyond

While network security has always been important as a means to protect the physical infrastructure, and the data and content flowing though the network, it is gaining increased attention in the course of 5G and beyond 5G networks, because networks become deeply rooted in our society in the business, governmental and private spaces.

A holistic security vision for 5G & Beyond networks

The recently arrived 5G architectures will enable a plethora of services and applications never imagined some time ago. However, its complex network infrastructure is prone to suffer cybersecurity attacks that must be tackled in order to ensure users’ privacy and security. In this line, the Horizon-2020-funded INSPIRE-5Gplus project aims at progressing the security vision of 5G & beyond systems by designing and developing a smart, trustworthy and liability-aware security platform for these kinds of systems. To this end, state-of-the-art technologies such as Zero-Touch Network & Service Management (ZSM), Software Defined Security (SD-SEC) modes, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based techniques, and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) are being adopted to provide a security aware architecture and its associated closed-loop of security functions.

Military use of 5G

Military experts foresee that 5G will play an important role in future military operations, and 5G is today a hot topic in NATO. Ubiquitous connectivity, high bandwidth and low latency opens for many new use cases and military organizations all around the world are today experimenting with 5G and plan to use public 5G networks providing good coverage in combination with military-operated private 5G networks.

Security threats and strategies for 5G and Beyond

The changing threat landscape has impacts on security and trust of current and future networks in Europe and worldwide. Eurescom message editor-in-chief Milon Gupta asked three cybersecurity experts from ENISA, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, about the status, trends and strategies to deal with security threats: Goran Milenkovic is cybersecurity expert in the Policy Development and Implementation unit of ENISA, and he is primarily responsible for the telecom sector and for 5G security; Marnix Dekker leads the work of the Agency in the area of telecom security, cybersecurity breach reporting, and the security of cloud and digital infrastructure under the NIS Directive; and Apostolos Malatras, is Team Leader of ENISA's Knowledge and Information Team, in charge of the cybersecurity of emerging technologies, threat landscapes and foresight.