Authentication Mechanisms in the 5G System

The 5G system introduces multiple new authentication mechanisms. The initial 5G specification in 3GPP Release 15 defines the initial security solution including primary and secondary authentication. Further enhancements and additional security features are added in Release 16; some of them introduce new types of authentication. As a result, the scope and meaning of ‘authentication’ has expanded. This is a new trend in the 5G system as it introduces new concepts that did not exist in the preceding generation systems. One such example is the slice authentication for which the authentication is performed at the network slice level. As a result, the authentication mechanisms become more complex. This paper clarifies the details of each of these different authentication mechanisms.

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DDoS Attacks on the Educational Sector are Threatening Online Learning

With the onset of Covid, online classes are starting to become a staple of modern learning. Many schools, colleges, and universities remain closed for months due to social distancing. Over 1.2 billion children are out of school globally.
Instead of whiteboards, we’re starting to use digital boards and software such as Miro. Instead of classrooms, we’re using Zoom and Skype calls. And for many, the only way to find out when the next lesson is starting is to look up a digital timetable on a school’s website.
At the same time, online learning infrastructure is largely unprotected. Many local schools or university websites operate under the pretense that they won’t become a DDoS target. And it’s easy to think that way. These platforms are small, they don’t generate a lot of income, if any, and they contribute to a good cause. So who would DDoS them?
and launch a powerful network flood for just a few dollars.

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Encrypted Traffic Integration: A Persistent Challenge

When the operators and government representatives first met at Vienna in 1850 to work out the arrangements for connecting electrical telegraph networks across borders, they wrestled with a problem that has remained a persistent challenge ever since.  The problem was the handling of communication traffic in Morse binary code by users pursuing perfect end-to-end encryption.  In an attempt by users to keep their traffic messages from being read by anyone except for the intended recipient, they developed mathematical techniques for encrypting them, i.e., rendering them unintelligible and essentially invisible, along the transmission path.

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Safeguarding Your Organisation Against Phishing Attacks

With phishing attacks on the rise, the potential cost of a data breach to organisations is worrying. IBM and Ponemon’s research revealed that data breaches cost UK enterprises an average of $3.88 million per breach. While the cost alone is eye wateringly painful, organisations also suffer reputational damage, a loss of trust, and significant disruption to operations.

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Identity Is the New Black

Identity is a concept that has existed since the dawn of the computer, but identity and its protection is becoming ever more important. Historically the identities we use have been stored and managed in on-premises environments. With cloud computing and the new normal of working from home, identity is now the only parameter that companies and organizations can use to exert control over systems and accesses.
The cloud has made the security of identities an on-going issue for the past 10 years, but increased working from home has made this issue a business critical one.

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Email Security: The Crucial Double Check

Despite innovations and sophistication in hacking methods, one of the main means of data loss is insiders, including employees making mistakes. Humans make errors – stressed, distracted employees will make even more mistakes. And with sensitive information on the line, such as regulatory compliance to safeguarding Intellectual Property (IP), companies are increasingly concerned about the risk of inadvertent data loss. But how can this threat be mitigated? This article emphasises the importance of implementing a crucial double check to improve email security culture.

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Why You Should Care About Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management

To remain competitive in this new business and complex IT environment, organizations must be fully aware of the threats affecting their supply chains and should work effectively to mitigate them before they pose risks to their customers and business operations. This article sheds light on the term Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM), outlines the most common threats, and lists mitigations to lower their impact.

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The Role of Data Governance in Cybersecurity

Data is a critical enterprise asset that underpins operations, drives decision-making, makes personalised end-to-end service delivery possible, unlocks competitive advantage and more. Unfortunately, all this data represents a rich prize for cyber criminals looking to steal, hijack, or hold data to ransom. Which is why cybersecurity has become a top strategic priority for today’s organisations, given the exponential rise of ransomware, phishing and other cyber threats.

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What exactly is Security Assurance?

If you are a regular reader of Cybersecurity Magazine, you may have come across Security Assurance before. In this article, we take a look at what is behind this abstract term and why it is so important.
Security assurance is an umbrella term for several processes aimed at ensuring individual system components can adequately protect themselves from attacks. Doing so requires not just a one-time effort, but actually spans the complete system lifecycle. After all, what is considered an acceptable security posture may change over time depending on, for example, newly emerging threats or changes to how the system itself is utilized.

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