From NEA and NIA to NESAS and SCAS: Demystifying the 5G Security Ecosystem

TL;DR

This paper provides a non-technical overview of 5G security mechanisms, aiming to clarify core concepts, establish a security baseline, and identify future challenges and threats in the evolving 5G ecosystem.

Contribution

It offers a simplified, bottom-up explanation of 5G security mechanisms, demystifying complex concepts and setting a foundation for understanding 5G security risks.

Findings

Clarified core security mechanisms of 5G

Established a baseline for 5G security understanding

Highlighted potential future threats and directions

Abstract

Despite the numerous pompous statements regarding 5G, it is indisputable that 5G creates a radical shift in telecommunications. The main reason is that 5G is an enabler of numerous applications we have long envisioned and either simulated or implemented in test environments, partially or on a smaller scale. 5G will soon unlock the potential of smart cities, industry 4.0, and IoT, to name a few. However, a crucial question is how much we can trust this technology. Since this technology will soon become the core infrastructure for all of the above, it is critical to understand the fundamental security mechanisms that comprise this technology and the guarantees they provide to assess the potential risks we are exposed to. This work follows a non-technical yet bottom-up approach to introduce the reader to the core security mechanisms and establish a baseline for the security of 5G, to demystify the principal notions and processes. Based on the above, we streamline future directions and highlight possible threats.