Impressive new techniques have been developed to guarantee the security of 5G networks.

New security technologies have been included by design based on the following principles:

• mutual authentication: confirmation that both sender and receiver trust each other.
• open networks: safety is never assumed by products or processes.
• assumption of eavesdroppers: all links can be “listened in on”, making encryption of network traffic mandatory.

As a result, striking new network security techniques have been developed:

• NAS message security is established when an end user is authenticated and registered.
• all virtualization technologies enable networks and IT resources to be isolated and segmented, boosting security and reducing the impacts of attacks.
• Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), a dedicated 5G security node, protects the boundary of the home network and acts as a sentry that polices interconnections between the home network and visited networks.
• a Network Exposure Function (NEF) enables the secure delivery of information within the 5G network through verified and authorized external applications.

As such 5G comes with significant built-in measures to reduce the impacts of known threats, but emerging network technologies have the potential to introduce novel threats that the industry will have to continuously manage.