The promise of 5G is much more than faster browsing on mobile phones. Done right, 5G can bring massive business transformation. The design of 5G networks — with its ability to allow millions of devices in high-density settings — can enable smart supply chains, autonomous transportation, smart manufacturing, mass adoption of the internet of things (IoT) and much more.
“For 5G to live up to its promise of transforming industries, companies need the confidence that 5G networks and services have enterprise-grade security,” said Anand Oswal, senior vice president and general manager, Firewall as a Platform, Palo Alto Networks.
Palo Alto Networks (PAN) claims to be introducing the industry’s first 5G-native security offering, bringing its expertise in securing networks, clouds and devices to the 5G world. This new offering enables service providers and enterprises to turn 5G networks into highly secure networks.
Oswal said: “We created 5G-native security in order to give enterprises the confidence they need to harness 5G for business transformation and to help service providers secure the new enterprise services they are creating.”
Features include:
- Containerized 5G security: Much of the 5G infrastructure is being built with cloud native architectures. Palo Alto Networks containerized 5G security is designed to secure the 5G core and edge clouds even across multi-cloud and multi-vendor environments.
- Real-time visibility, prevention and correlation of 5G user/device threats: The ability to look into the signalling channel lets service providers and enterprises apply security policies based on the user and device. Real-time correlation of threats can help identify which subscriber, device or machine might be the target of an attack, or where the root cause of threats might be. This can help in forensics and accelerated security event investigation.
- 5G network slice security: 5G networks allow service providers to offer a dedicated end-to-end piece of the network that gives enterprises the reliability and confidence to use 5G for their core business activities. Palo Alto Networks 5G-native security lets service providers offer secure versions of these slices to their customers as a new product.
Third-party comments
According to Jeremy Capell, director of Information Security, DISH Network, security is more important than ever. Security should be simple to deploy and operate. “For obvious reasons, I cannot discuss any security partner agreements. I can, however, say that Palo Alto Networks has already made significant strides in 5G innovation such as containerized 5G next-generation firewalls, which enables deploying firewalls automatically through a central cloud-native orchestrator,” he added.
Tanner Johnson, a senior cybersecurity analyst at Omdia says 5G networks bring new capabilities and transform the network architecture adopting containers and multi-clouds, enabling dramatic service innovation. Enterprises in verticals such as automotive, manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, etc. are embracing 5G networks to transform their industries.
“This presents a requirement for service providers and enterprises to integrate security across the entire 5G network and establish secure connectivity services. The innovation with Palo Alto Networks 5G-native security speaks to this approach," he continued.
