5G technology is creating new opportunities for improving industries and people’s daily lives alike. The new connection system will allow us to reach faster and stronger connectivity, enabling us to work better and smarter from anywhere in the world.

However, between the many advantages lie also many challenges to be addressed in the near future in order to ensure that this technological advancement will make our lives easier and will not create more context for cybercrimes. 

Challenges we have to address

No doubt 5G is faster and more secure than its predecessors, being able to protect its users from exploits to which 3G and 4G were many times at risk. Although improvements have been made in the area of security too, researchers have been still discovering many flaws of this new technology. One of the most recent studies about 5G flaws, by Security researchers at Purdue University and the University of Iowa, has underlined that this new technology is still facing security challenges, such as tracking phone location or spoof emergency alerts. 

Security studies around the 5G technology are ongoing and keeping on to show the flaws of this technology too, will definitely be a step forward in order to address these issues. Security problems in mobile networks are not a new dilemma, but this challenge is becoming more important as the world is transitioning from traditional work and education to more and more hybrid and online approaches. 

Avoiding vulnerabilities

Security and privacy concerns are at the forefront of improving 5G technology and making sure that most vulnerabilities can be avoided. Firstly, a trusted 5G architecture is key to ensure security and privacy. People, companies, and governments have to make sure they will protect properly components, such as the core network and management layers, as well as to ensure strong subscriber authentication. 

Secondly, solid security measures will have to be accompanied by general awareness and educational training on how to protect yourself or your company from malicious activity. Also, access to security tools and data protection has to be a priority for every organization, no matter if they are remote or not. 

On this matter, 5G technology will mark the beginning of a new era of network security by introducing IMSI encryption. All traffic data which will be sent through 5G technology will be encrypted. This way informations will be integrity protected and subject to mutual authentication. 

A new opportunity for innovation and security

This period of challenges and concerns around the new 5G technology has to be looked at also as an opportunity to gather information, to learn, and to produce innovation. Underlining the flaws of this new technology can help us correct the issues and see new perspectives on how we approach cybersecurity. 

The wider acceptance and use of the 5G technology will revolutionize many industries and our daily lives alike. Addressing challenges on this road will create room for new paths to follow that will bring us hopefully a better, faster, and more safe network.