An organization’s reputation is closely linked to its security measures. 5G and AI have created a sense of limitless innovation; However, among these vast opportunities, security must remain an essential companion.
The temptation to invest in capability above all else is always appealing, but without security, any company’s hard-earned reputation can collapse overnight.
As the pace of innovation accelerates, identifying and managing security threats becomes more difficult. In recent years, industry-wide standards and best practices, such as “security by design,” have been key to minimizing the attack surface, but vigilance can only be maintained through collective commitment understand threats as they evolve and quickly define industry priorities. broad mitigation measures against them.
Protecting customers and mitigating cybersecurity threats to critical national infrastructure is a role that telecom operators are expected to fulfill – a responsibility that extends its impact to every other sector.
The penalty for inadequate defense is increasingly severe. Cybersecurity companies estimates that global cybercrime last year resulted in a staggering cost of $8 trillion, placing the country as the third largest global “economy,” just behind the United States and China.
The consequences for individuals and businesses can be nothing short of devastating. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million, an increase of 15% over the past three years. According to a Centrify According to one study, 65% of data breach victims lose trust in an organization following a breach.
Security before the mass adoption of new technologies
Many of these challenges arise from modernizing mobile infrastructure and must be addressed before new technologies can be commercialized or fully used at scale.
For example, 5G RAN and 5G core technologies lay the foundation for a diverse range of new products and services, but their success depends on network security.
Network security, in all its forms, depends on cooperation within the broader ecosystem. Sharing real-time, strategic threat intelligence within the mobile ecosystem is a good example of where the industry has excelled in recent years.
Successful measures, such as the Telecommunications Intelligence Sharing and Analysis Center (T-ISAC) and the Threat Intelligence Subgroup of the GSMA Fraud and Security Group (FASG), demonstrate how collaboration and information sharing are essential to prevent fraud on the mobile network and its broader ecosystem.
The rise of artificial intelligence
But what’s remarkable about modern cybersecurity is how quickly the industry must respond to new technological changes, perhaps the most notable being the rise of AI.
As McKinsey In other words, 2023 was the pivotal year for generative AI, with rapid rates of adoption by individuals and businesses.
In their 2023 survey, a third of respondents said their organization was using generative AI in at least one function, and 40% said their organization would increase its investments in AI overall due to advances in AI. Generative AI.
However, few companies appear fully prepared for the widespread use of generative AI, or the business risks these tools can bring, with only 38% saying their company will mitigate cybersecurity risks related to it. ‘AI.
As businesses and individuals around the world integrate AI more deeply into their daily processes, the industry must play a leading role in ensuring it is protected against attacks.
AI has become a powerful force in cybersecurity, shaping the strategies of attackers and defenders.
Cybercriminals can now use AI-powered tools to create convincing phishing emails, orchestrate deepfake attacks, and develop malware with adaptive capabilities, rendering many traditional defense mechanisms obsolete.
AI’s automation prowess is accelerating cyber threats, allowing attackers to identify and exploit weaknesses at unprecedented speed, posing challenges for defenders struggling to keep up.
AI-based evasion techniques add an extra layer of complexity to cyber threats. Polymorphic malware, capable of changing the structure of its code to evade detection, illustrates how AI allows attackers to continually defeat conventional security measures.
But with the progress of attacks, new forms of defense appear. AI can play a central role in identifying anomalies and potential threats. For example, AI’s ability to automate incident response processes can transform cybersecurity: rapid detection, analysis and response to security incidents becomes achievable at a pace that manual processes cannot match, thereby minimizing the impact of cyber threats.
Join the expert community
Raising awareness of emerging threats and bringing together leading experts is the aim of two of the most important industrial events of the annual cycle: the “Security Summit: Strengthening the Security of the Mobile Ecosystem‘ organized on Tuesday 27th February, and ‘GSMA SEC CON: Securing the future with artificial intelligence‘ on Thursday 29th February, both at MWC Barcelona 24.
These events are hosted by the GSMA and feature leading security experts and thought leaders from the industry. They are must-reads for those across the security ecosystem and provide unique insight into the most pressing threats in 2024 – and, more importantly, the most effective measures to stop them.
You can learn more and register for both events below:
Security Summit: Strengthening the Security of the Mobile Ecosystem
GSMA SEC CON: Securing the future with artificial intelligence
