In today’s hyperconnected world, the proliferation of 5G is transforming the way we think about networks and communications, the speed at which we deploy networked devices, and the data we produce and share.
5G connectivity is not limited to our phones. It is increasingly vital to business operations, our national infrastructure and critical infrastructure sectors, including banking, energy, food, health, transportation and water..
There is no doubt that 5G will prove revolutionary in terms of productivity and automation, radically improving the way data is captured, stored, shared and used.
But as adoption increases, so does the intensity of the threat landscape. 5G will create a tsunami of data and boost the distance, frequency and speed of your travel.
With data compromise being the primary reason for most cyber attacks, concerns are rising around the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data in motion over 5G networks.
Constantly expanding attack surface
The recent Tales Data Threat Report 2023 shows that 75 per cent of Australian organizations are concerned about 5G network security threats.
Organizations are right to be concerned; 5G is the first cellular generation to launch in the era of global organized cybercrime and the first to rely on cloud and DevOps frameworks for its deployment and continued operation.
The rollout also continues to support an increasing number of devices that could reach up to 1 million devices per square kilometer. As this attack surface expands, so does the scale, depth, and potential impact of a successful cyberattack.
While many organizations, particularly those operating in critical industries, understand the importance of having a strong cybersecurity posture, protecting unprecedented volumes of urgent and fast-moving data has become a critical challenge.
Protect everything but data
Many organizations believe that working to defend all potentially exploitable assets in the digital environment around data is the most effective way to prevent data-related incidents. If security best practices have been implemented around user access, connected devices, software, and networks, then data should be secure, right? Mistaken.
The reality is that it only takes a material error in the perimeter security environment or a small human oversight to open the door to an expert attacker.
If the data itself is not secured to prevent exposure, the consequences can be catastrophic. Sensitive customer information can be easily viewed, altered, breached, or stolen, often costing organizations a hundred times more than it would have cost to protect the actual data.
The growth and success of a company today depends on both good data security and safeguarding its cash flow. By not enforcing confidentiality and integrity of the data itself and trusting that everything else is secure, the data is still at risk.
Data in motion
Losing control of data is a growing anxiety for businesses and governments around the world; However, protecting data in transit has long been limited to legacy technologies such as IPSec and MACSec, which are not suitable for the speed and volume of 5G.
Data in motion can travel in two ways: within the boundaries of a private network or outside the organization. Data that travels outside of an organization makes it more complex to know where it is, where it has traveled, or where it is hosted, and whether it has been accessed or modified during its journey.
Today, almost half of Australian organizations identify data in motion as the biggest target of cyberattacks, while seven in ten are concerned about the security of data moving specifically over 5G networks.
A third of Australian organizations are already prioritizing investment to protect data in motion, but the majority have yet to address this critically important task.
Protecting data in motion may seem like a big challenge, but the latest generation of network data encryption surpasses this traditional view. This technology addresses the five key requirements of 5G data-in-motion security:
- Transparency – alleviates the need to replace, redesign or redesign current network infrastructure.
- Scalability – accommodates huge, highly dispersed network deployments, from the most remote offices to the largest global cloud customers, with autonomous key management and security.
- Extreme performance – supports data transfers of tens or hundreds of gigabits per second (Gbps) that are not supported by legacy network encryption technology.
- Low latency – Accommodates near real-time response in microseconds when leveraging 5G for time-sensitive infrastructure.
- Quantum resistance and immediate preparation – prevents the risk of cybercriminals “hoovering data” today in anticipation of weak quantum security being broken in the future.
Raising new questions about data sovereignty
Effectively encrypting data in transit will not only help protect us as 5G proliferation grows, but will also address privacy and compliance obligations. As regulations around the world continue to tighten, digital sovereignty has become a multifaceted issue of increasing importance to government, security and business leaders.
YesGuarantee the digital environment of a company. and Protecting data, combined with a “think globally, act locally” approach to digital sovereignty, will build trust in Australia’s 5G-powered digital ecosystem. Only then can organisations, and Australia as a nation, truly reap the benefits that lie ahead.
Brian Grant is ANZ Regional Director at Thales Cloud Security.
