On October 9 the EU member states, with the support of the European Commission and the European Agency for Cybersecurity have published a report on the EU coordinated risk assessment on cybersecurity in Fifth generation (5G) networks. The report is based on the results of the national cybersecurity risk assessments by all EU Member States. It identifies the main threats and threats actors, the most sensitive assets, the main vulnerabilities.
“Challenges caused by 5G networks will become one of the main factors that put the security system to test,” Vice Minister of National Defence Edvinas Kerza says and expresses a hope that “integrity and transparency of connection in technology world will become the concern of the entire European Union.”
Vice Minister E. Kerza underscores that “we understand the importance of 5G networks to economy and we are also looking into the new challenges it brings. We have carried out the national threat assessment and we are ready to seek that the new technology would serve the society in a safe way.”
This report is part of the implementation of the European Commission Recommendation adopted in March 2019 to ensure a high level of cybersecurity of 5G networks across the EU.
By 31 December 2019, the NIS Cooperation Group (established by the 2016 Directive to ensure high security of networks and information systems across the EU) should agree on a toolbox of mitigating measures to address the identified cybersecurity risks at national and European Union level.
By 1 October 2020, Member States – in cooperation with the Commission – should assess the effects of the Recommendation in order to determine whether there is a need for further action. This assessment should take into account the outcome of the coordinated European risk assessment and of the effectiveness of the measures.
On 26 March 2019 the European Commission adopted a Recommendation on Cybersecurity of 5G networks calling on Member States to complete national risk assessments and review national measures and to work together at EU level on a coordinated risk assessment and a common toolbox of mitigating measures. At national level, each Member State has completed a national risk assessment of 5G network infrastructures and transmitted the results to the Commission and ENISA, the EU Agency for cybersecurity. The national risk assessments reviewed in particular main threats and threat actors affecting 5G networks, sensitive 5G assets as well as relevant vulnerabilities, including both technical ones and other types of vulnerabilities, such as those potentially arising from the 5G supply chain, in line with the EC Recommendation.
Main insights of the EU coordinated risk assessment
The report identifies a number of important security challenges, which are likely to appear or become more prominent in 5G networks, compared with the situation in existing networks: key innovations in the 5G technology, in particular the important part of software and the wide range of services and applications enabled by 5G, as well as the role of suppliers in building and operating 5G networks and the degree of dependency on individual suppliers.
The roll-out of 5G networks is expected to have the following effects:
• An increased exposure to attacks and more potential entry points for attackers: With 5G networks increasingly based on software, risks related to major security flaws, such as those deriving from poor software development processes within suppliers are gaining in importance. They could also make it easier for threat actors to maliciously insert backdoors into products and make them harder to detect.
• Due to new characteristics of the 5G network architecture and new functionalities, certain pieces of network equipment or functions are becoming more sensitive, such as base stations or key technical management functions of the networks.
• An increased exposure to risks related to the reliance of mobile network operators on suppliers. This will also lead to a higher number of attacks paths that might be exploited by threat actors and increase the potential severity of the impact of such attacks. Among the various potential actors, non-EU States are considered as the most serious ones and the most likely to target 5G networks.
• In this context of increased exposure to attacks facilitated by suppliers, the risk profile of individual suppliers will become particularly important, including the likelihood of the supplier being subject to interference from a non-EU country.
• Increased risks from major dependencies on suppliers: a major dependency on a single supplier increases the exposure to a potential supply interruption, resulting for instance from a commercial failure, and its consequences. It also aggravates the potential impact of weaknesses or vulnerabilities, and of their possible exploitation by threat actors, in particular where the dependency concerns a supplier presenting a high degree of risk.
• Threats to availability and integrity of networks will become major security concerns: in addition to confidentiality and privacy threats, with 5G networks expected to become the backbone of many critical IT applications, the integrity and availability of those networks will become major national security concerns and a major security challenge from an EU perspective. Together, these challenges create a new security paradigm, making it necessary to reassess the current policy and security framework applicable to the sector and its ecosystem and essential for Member states to take the necessary mitigating measures.
To complement the Member States’ report, the European Agency for Cybersecurity is finalising a specific threat landscape mapping related to 5G networks, which considers in more detail certain technical aspects covered in the report.
Information on the coordinated EU 5G risk assessment in full
