Security News > 2023 > July > CISA and NSA Issue New Guidance to Strengthen 5G Network Slicing Against Threats

U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have released a set of recommendations to address security concerns with 5G standalone network slicing and harden them against possible threats.

"The threat landscape in 5G is dynamic; due to this, advanced monitoring, auditing, and other analytical capabilities are required to meet certain levels of network slicing service level requirements over time," the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency said.

Network slicing is an architectural model that allows mobile service providers to partition their network up into several independent "Slices" in order to create virtual networks that cater to different clients and use cases.

The latest advisory builds upon guidance previously issued by the agencies in December 2022, warning that network slicing could expose users to a wide range of threat vectors - denial-of-service, jamming, identity theft, and adversary-in-the-middle attacks - effectively hampering the confidentiality, integrity, and the availability of network services.

Concerns with 5G network slicing were detailed in a report published by Enea AdaptiveMobile Security in March 2021, which highlighted the potential for brute-force attacks to gain malicious access to a slice and orchestrate denial-of-service attacks against other network functions.

The agencies also said it's crucial to recognize industry-recognized best-practices of how 5G network slicing can be implemented, designed, deployed, operated, maintained, potentially hardened, and mitigated as they affect Quality of Service and service level agreements.

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https://thehackernews.com/2023/07/cisa-and-nsa-issue-new-guidance-to.html