Old Vulnerabilities Can Impact 5G Networks: How to Stay Secure

According to a recent release, there are new reports from London-based cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies that claim future 5G networks might be vulnerable to existing GTP protocol vulnerabilities.

The report, released in June 2020, stated that vulnerabilities in the GPRS Tunnelling Protocol (GTP), mainly used by mobile operators, will likely continue to have an impact even as networks migrate to 5G infrastructure. According to the report, even if the 5G protocol contains security features to prevent similar attacks, legacy protocols could allow hackers to intercept user data and carry out impersonation, fraud, and denial of service (DoS) attacks.

According to the announcement, Positive Technologies advises that security infrastructure at late stages of development could either cost much more or leave vulnerabilities that might be impossible to fix.

“5G is something to be excited about — it's predicted to be ten times faster than 4G,” aid Daniel Markuson, digital privacy expert at NordVPN. “The 5G technology will also have a virtualized core. This means that instead of specialized hardware, there will be software routing voice and other data to ensure it gets to the right destination. Software-based architecture also creates more potential entry points for attackers. It also means that it could be easier to insert malicious backdoors into products and make them harder to detect.”

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