Palo Alto Networks today introduced the industry’s first 5G-native security offering, bringing its expertise in securing networks, clouds and devices to the 5G world. This new offering enables service providers and enterprises to turn 5G networks into highly secure networks.

The promise of 5G is much more than faster browsing on mobile phones. Done right, 5G can bring massive business transformation. The design of 5G networks - with its ability to allow millions of devices in high-density settings - can enable smart supply chains, autonomous transportation, smart manufacturing, mass adoption of the internet of things (IoT) and much more.

“For 5G to live up to its promise of transforming industries, companies need the confidence that 5G networks and services have enterprise-grade security,” said Anand Oswal, senior vice president and general manager, Firewall as a Platform, Palo Alto Networks. “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.”

Palo Alto Networks has taken its expertise in securing enterprises and mobile networks and added understanding of the 5G protocols and 5G network interfaces to introduce a number of industry firsts:

Containerized 5G security: Much of the 5G infrastructure is being built with cloud native architectures. Palo Alto Networks containerized 5G security is designed to secure the 5G core and edge clouds even across multi-cloud and multi-vendor environments.

Real-time visibility, prevention and correlation of 5G user/device threats: The ability to look into the signaling channel lets service providers and enterprises apply security policies based on the user and device. Real-time correlation of threats can help identify which subscriber, device or machine might be the target of an attack, or where the root cause of threats might be. This can help in forensics and accelerated security event investigation.

5G network slice security: 5G networks allow service providers to offer a dedicated end-to-end piece of the network that gives enterprises the reliability and confidence to use 5G for their core business activities. Palo Alto Networks 5G-native security lets service providers offer secure versions of these slices to their customers as a new product.

"We have an immense opportunity with 5G, and security is more important than ever. We want a cybersecurity partner that can holistically protect our 5G network and shares our vision of 5G. Security should be simple to deploy and operate. For obvious reasons, I cannot discuss any security partner agreements. I can, however, say that Palo Alto Networks has already made significant strides in 5G innovation such as containerized 5G next-generation firewalls, which enables deploying firewalls automatically through a central cloud-native orchestrator. From my personal experience over the years, I can also say that Palo Alto Networks has the deep expertise and skills to support their security products and ensure success," said Jeremy Capell, director of Information Security, DISH Network.

“StarHub is excited to be the first to offer customers in Singapore the 5G experience. To help us bring greater security protections to the new 5G infrastructure and the services that will be delivered, we are happy to work with Palo Alto Networks to integrate their industry-leading 5G security capabilities into our network. Not only does this help us build a secure 5G network, it also enables us to launch new and innovative services,” said Chong Siew Loong, chief technology officer of StarHub.

"5G networks bring new capabilities and transform the network architecture adopting containers and multi-clouds, enabling dramatic service innovation. Enterprises in verticals such as automotive, manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, etc. are embracing 5G networks to transform their industries,” says Tanner Johnson, Omdia. “This presents a requirement for service providers and enterprises to integrate security across the entire 5G network, and establish secure connectivity services. The innovation with Palo Alto Networks 5G-native security speaks to this approach."