Palo Alto Networks has announced the launch of the first 5G-native security offering, in a move the cyber security firm says will enable service providers to ensure the integrity of 5G networks.
Available now on select firewalls, Palo Alto says it has added understanding of 5G protocols and network interfaces to its expertise in securing enterprises and mobile networks. The result is a number of industry-firsts - including containerised 5G security, real-time visibility and prevention of threats to 5G devices, and 5G network slice security.
“For 5G to live up to its promise of transforming industries, companies need the confidence that 5G networks and services have enterprise-grade security,” commented Anand Oswal, senior vice president and general manager, Firewall as a Platform, Palo Alto Networks.
Service providers and enterprises will benefit from a reduced security risk thanks to 5G architecture protection across all network layers, the firm says, as well as a high degree of automation, accelerated 5G adoption, and lower total cost of ownership.
As much of the 5G infrastructure is being built with cloud-native architectures, Palo Alto’s containerised 5G security has been designed to secure the 5G core and edge clouds – even across multi-cloud and multi-vendor environments.
The offering also provides real-time visibility, prevention, and correlation of threats to individual 5G users and devices. This ability to look into the signalling channel will let service providers apply security policies based on the user and device, as well as determine potential attack targets and threat causes.
Additionally, 5G network slice security will enable service providers to offer a secure, dedicated end-to-end piece of the network for core business activities as a new product, Palo Alto says.
“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,” Oswal added.
5G security capabilities are available a number of Palo Alto Networks firewalls, including the PA-5200 Series and PA-7000 Series hardware models, as well as all VM-Series/CN-Series software models running PAN-OS 10.0+.
