5G5G: New Benefits, Cybersecurity Risks

You no doubt have seen the numerous television commercials touting the introduction of the next cellular technology: fifth generation wireless technology, more commonly called 5G.

5G builds upon existing telecommunication infrastructure to improve bandwidth and capabilities and reduce network-generated delays. However, 5G also carries over and introduces new risks that must be addressed to ensure its secure and safe use by the government and private sectors, including everyday citizens. Together, S&T and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are working to do just that.

The complete evolution to 5G will take years—expected by 2022—but its goals are to meet increasing data and communication requirements, including capacity for tens of billions of connected devices that will make up the internet of things, ultra-low latency—the delay in communications between connections—required for near-real time communications, and faster speeds to support emerging technologies. 5G networks currently are in development; right now, availability is limited to urban areas around the country.

Wireless Precursors and 5G Benefits
Roughly every 10 years, the next generation of mobile communication networks is released, bringing faster speeds and increased capabilities. The first-generation (1G) wireless network enabled the first cell phones, 2G brought improved coverage and texting, 3G introduced voice with data/internet, and 4G/4G long-term evolution (LTE) delivered increased speeds to keep up with mobile data demand.

5G technology promises to completely transform telecommunication networks, introducing a wealth of benefits such as:

·  100-times-faster download speeds—for instance, a 3-gigabyte movie will now download in only 35 seconds;

·  10-times decrease in latency—this will enable new capabilities, such as remote surgery and self-driving cars; and

·  increased network capacity—this will allow millions of devices to be connected to the same network within a small geographical area.

These benefits will pave the way for additional new capabilities and support connectivity for applications like smart homes and cities, industrial automation, autonomous vehicles, telemedicine, and virtual/augmented reality.

“From my perspective, 5G is the single biggest critical infrastructure build that the globe has seen in the last 25 years and, coupled with the growth of cloud computing, automation, and future of artificial intelligence, demands focused attention today to secure tomorrow,” said CISA Director Christopher Krebs in the agency’s 5G Strategy report.