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Understanding the Risks Associated with Global 5G Infrastructure

July 1, 2024

Case Study

Challenge

5G infrastructure and technology continue to proliferate across the globe. While the expanding surface area has positive implications for global connectivity and capability, it is accompanied by a potentially larger vulnerability surface area for U.S. Government (USG) organizations operating abroad. The 2020 Department of Defense 5G Strategy Implementation Plan and other compliance measures were enacted to require USG to begin planning to identify exposure to these vulnerabilities and to mitigate them through assessing cybersecurity and Zero-Trust hardware and software technologies.

Solution

To enable the USG organization to establish trust and transparency in their 5G exposure overseas, Exiger conducted a qualitative analysis on 23 countries and assessed 5G progress in three main categories: infrastructure, government oversight, and security:

While 8 countries had advanced 5G infrastructure, the majority of the 23 countries had average or immature infrastructure set-ups, requiring major investments in hardware and implementation by vendors.
11 countries were found to have proactive government oversight and commitment to 5G development, while 12 countries had inconsistent or insufficient government involvement in 5G development.
22 countries had average or below average security measures, suggesting an undeveloped information and communications technology (ICT) security set-up.

Impact

A cross-functional effort between our Analytics team and subject matter experts in critical technology and infrastructure led to a comprehensive international report on 5G infrastructure. Exiger’s products and services will continue to assist the USG to ensure:

Suppliers adhere to stringent monitoring, inspection, physical security, and personnel-vetting standards and best practices.
USG will not acquire, import, transfer, install, deal-in, or use 5G technologies that are produced by foreign adversaries.
USG, in close coordination with allies and partners and industry, will develop and execute a detailed plan for supply chain risk management for this sector.

This advertisement is neither paid for nor sponsored, in whole or in part, by any element of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any of its agencies endorse the products or services provided by Exiger.