Since the official commercial launch of 5G in 2019, from a global perspective, 5G network coverage is increasing. The deployment of 5G will also accelerate significantly in 2020. According to the latest research report of "The Status of 5G Deployment" released by VIAVI, as of January 2020, commercial 378G networks have been deployed in 378 cities in 34 countries.

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What are the 5G network security issues?
Written By Calio
Since the official commercial launch of 5G in 2019, from a global perspective, 5G network
coverage is increasing. The deployment of 5G will also accelerate significantly in 2020. According
to the latest research report of "The Status of 5G Deployment" released by VIAVI, as of January
2020, commercial 378G networks have been deployed in 378 cities in 34 countries.
At present, it is still in the early stages of 5G applications, and many enterprises and departments
have not realized the existence of 5G security vulnerabilities. According to Choice IoT, it is
important for enterprises to have a plan to check and solve problems at the beginning of the
launch of 5G and IoT platforms, so as to prevent future network security "disasters".
There is a big gap between the low latency, high bandwidth and higher service speed brought by
5G networks and the security of 5G. Although many people are excited about Gartner's
prediction that global investment in 5G wireless network infrastructure will exceed $ 4.2 billion
by 2020, few people will pay attention to the fact that this will also bring unprecedented security
breaches and the cost of this.
5G and IoT solution experts, such as Choice IOT CEO Darren Sadana, are engaged in an ongoing
dialogue with companies that are developing 5G plans. "Companies will need a strategy to
overcome 5G's security vulnerabilities inherited from 4G, otherwise they will face major losses
and privacy disasters."
5G is expected to promote the widespread application of the Internet of Things, the Industrial
Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud services, network virtualization, and edge computing, which will
double the complexity of endpoint security. Although IIoT security is a top priority in
manufacturing, new security vulnerabilities brought about by 5G network applications may

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plague them again.
According to an Accenture study of more than 2,600 business and technology decision-makers in
12 industries in Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific, 62% are worried that 5G will make
them more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The root of the problem is that many security problems
originate from 5G-related application software. Unlike 4G networks, more of them are hardware
problems.
This has advantages and disadvantages in IoT applications. Many devices are highly localized and
located at the edge of the network. 5G networks are very useful for applications such as device
authentication, device encryption, device ID and credentials, but on the other hand, many of
these advantages also bring security risks.
Signal and data transmission in 5G and IoT networks can form mobile network mapping (MNmap).
Network mapping is a network management tool program. System administrators can use the
Nmap program to do many things, including detection and scanning. , Monitoring and retrieving
data, etc., where an attacker can create a map of devices connected to the network, identify each
device and link it to a specific person, and then the attacker can hijack device information before
applying security measures to take effect.
Moreover, many devices have security holes, such as network backdoors. The backdoor will allow
malicious actors to gain a target location, eavesdrop on calls, and potentially inject ransomware
into 5G networks targeted at mobile operators.
Other vulnerabilities in the wireless and IoT fields include SIM card vulnerabilities, Authenticated
Key Exchange Protocol (AKA) and many base station backdoor vulnerabilities.
The figure above simply illustrates the working principle of the SIM card vulnerability. The

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attacker sends a text message containing a specific type of spyware to the victim's mobile phone.
The text message extracts the location data and sends it back to the attacker.
IoT applications from smart homes, medical devices, smart cities, smart grids, and self-driving
cars can all become threat targets. These applications provide attackers with multiple ways to
manipulate IoT devices that connect data through 5G networks.
Due to the extensive attack surface and inherent 5G vulnerabilities, DDoS attacks, controlling
video surveillance systems and medical devices, and more IoT applications are possible.
The situation is not so pessimistic for companies that want to maximize the benefits of 5G while
eliminating security vulnerabilities in many industries such as healthcare, utilities, finance,
automotive, and communications. Because, as the application of 5G increases, 5G-related
security standards will gradually be introduced. Now we hope more that these security standards
and protection measures are not too late, otherwise, 5G networks are also a double-edged
sword.