FEATURE: NETWORK SECURITY
The expansion of 5G networks has seen
a dramatic growth in network traffic which
will impact security and reliability more than
ever before. Ehab Halablab, Regional Sales
Director – Middle East at A10 Networks, tells
Intelligent CIO that it is security issues, not
COVID-19, that challenges the commercial
deployment of 5G networks.
Since the beginning of the
current pandemic, false and
unsubstantiated rumours of 5G
and its impact on people’s health
have been prevalent in social media. Phone
masts have reportedly been damaged or
destroyed in several European countries.
The scale of the problem prompted the
World Health Organisation (WHO), the UN
agency which is leading the response to
the pandemic, to add the 5G conspiracy to
its COVID-19 myth busters article, which
highlighted that ‘viruses cannot travel on
radio waves/mobile networks. COVID-19
is spreading in many countries that do not
have 5G mobile networks.’
In the midst of this controversy, A10
Networks released a report entitled, Toward
a More Secure 5G World, which highlighted
how COVID-19 may result in some shortterm
delays for operators, but ultimately
it demonstrates a global need for higher
speed, higher capacity 5G networks and the
applications and use cases they enable. The
5G networks face
challenging
security issues
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