Security gaps Imperil Private 5G networks in the middle of KI boom

Trend Micro Incorporated has published new common research results with CTONE warning today that a lack of communication technologies (CT) could expose private 5G networks despite the widespread introduction of AI security instruments.

Rachel Jin, Chief Enterprise Platform Officer of Trend, commented: “Not all AI security are created equally, and some organizations are exposed to know-how due to the lack of know-how. Proactive attack soil management is of crucial importance for private 5G networks, whereby each oversight can open the door to impair the risk for the security manager.

Private 5G networks are booming in critical industries, including energy and supply companies, military, logistics, healthcare and intelligent production. 100%of the trend survey surveyed stated that they currently use them either (86%) or their provision (14%).

IT and cyber security professionals also seem to understand the potential advantages of AI-driven security in these environments: Almost all of them indicated that they are currently (62%) either (62%) or the use of (35%) such tools for private 5G networks.

They see the following AI-Operated skills as essential in this regard:

• Predictive threat intelligence (58%)
• Continuous, adaptive authentication (52%)
• Zero Trust Enforcement (47%)
• Self-healing networks with AI automation (41%)

Jim Frey, Principal Analyst at ESG, said: “Organizations find an excellent operational value from private 5G networks, often as part of AI projects. However, you have to ensure that your security center is willing to monitor and protect this aspiring communication technology.

More than nine out of ten organizations currently use AI Security admit to facing challenges when providing technology in private 5G networks. High costs (47%), concerns regarding false alarms/negative (44%) and lack of internal specialist knowledge (37%) were most frequently cited.

A lack of internal CT know-how is reflected in the fact that only a fifth (20%) of global organizations have a committed team to secure their communication networks. In many cases, the responsibility for CT security is at CTO (43%) or CIO (32%).

“If the use of private and public mobile networks accelerates in companies, we will find new challenges that require specialized CT security functions,” said Jason Huang, CEO at CTONE. “Organizations must have the opportunity to secure end-to-end-combined width visibility that fits the secops needs so that they can attack their company risk to support new wireless applications.”

On average, less than a fifth (18%) of the security budgets of organizations for private 5G networks are currently assigned, although the critical services support them and the highly sensitive data that flow through these networks.

The research of trend showed that organizations may unintentionally expose themselves to cyber and compliance risk by not protecting the use of AI for traffic monitoring/analysis.

In particular, only about half or less respondents said that they:

• Make compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR (54%).
• Encrypt the data in the idle state and in transport (51%).
• Set strict access controls for AI models (50%).
• Use data anonymization techniques (44%).

methodology

Trend Micro & Ctone commissioned SAPIO research, 800 managers or higher, with the decision-making authority of IT and/or cyber security in the USA, Great Britain, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Spain in the USA. All respondents work in companies with over 250 employees and currently either use a private 5G network or rate the provision.

Further information on trends and Ctones activities at MWC Barcelona 2025 can be found at: