6G Security: Leading the Charge for a Safer Digital Future

As mobile networks evolve into critical digital infrastructure supporting billions of users and devices, the leap to 6G brings new security challenges. The sheer growth in connected devices, pervasive AI-driven services, and open APIs creates a complex environment with higher risks from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. In this landscape, security must be foundational, not a bolt-on feature. Building privacy, trust, and resilience into 6G networks is essential to underpin the digital societies of tomorrow. Nokia labs gives us some insight into how security will be built into future 6G networks.

Secure-by-Design: The New Security Paradigm

Nokia champions a secure-by-design approach for 6G. This philosophy embeds security at every phase of a system’s lifecycle, from design and standardization through deployment and maintenance. By making security a central business imperative, Nokia ensures that robust and trustworthy architectures are prioritized from day one, rather than addressed reactively.

Setting Standards Through Collaboration

Defining the security guardrails for 6G falls largely to the 3GPP’s SA3 group, where Nokia has taken a leadership role. Their work identifies fifteen key study areas for 6G security, focusing on adapting and strengthening 5G frameworks while introducing new capabilities to address emerging threats. Collaborative standardization is vital to ensure interoperability, resilience, and trust across the global mobile ecosystem.

Risk Management: Practical Defense in Depth

Absolute security is unrealistic, what’s critical is a risk-based approach. Nokia advocates for targeted investment in defenses that deliver the highest impact, balancing resources with the evolving complexity of 6G networks. This pragmatic strategy helps organizations prioritize protections without being overwhelmed.

Critical Priorities for 6G Security

• Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC): Quantum computing threatens current cryptographic standards. Nokia is advancing quantum-safe protocols and migration strategies to secure both 5G and 6G against these future risks.
  
  
• AI Security: As AI becomes central to 6G networks, robust technical safeguards and governance frameworks are needed to counter misuse, adversarial attacks, and data manipulation. Global regulatory alignment and standardization are crucial for trust and interoperability.
  
  
• Radio Lower Layer Protection: The foundational radio layers in mobile networks are vulnerable to threats like identity spoofing. Securing these in 6G is essential, especially with the rise of programmable radios.
  
  
• Data Security: Protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and privacy of data is paramount, especially as data sharing and AI integration increase in scope and scale.
  
  
• Security for New NAS: The modular Non-Access Stratum (NAS) architecture in 6G distributes security responsibilities, offering granularity but demanding rigorous key management and cipher selection.
  
  
• AEAD Support: Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) simplifies cryptographic operations, enhancing both strength and efficiency.
  
  
• Authentication Enhancement: Evolving identity and authentication mechanisms will improve flexibility and security for diverse access types and use cases.
  
  
• Security for Sensing: Integrating sensing with communications in 6G brings new privacy challenges, requiring novel protections for large volumes of sensitive, non-traditional data.
  
  
• Security Monitoring: Real-time, network-wide monitoring allows for dynamic response to threats, boosting adaptability and resilience.

Building the Most Secure Network Yet

Although formal approval for a comprehensive 6G security study is still pending, industry momentum is growing around shared priorities - particularly quantum-safe cryptography, AI security, and radio layer protection. Nokia continues to push for early action and secure-by-design principles, aiming to make 6G the most cyber-resilient and trustworthy network ever deployed.

Conclusion

The path to 6G demands that security is embedded throughout every step. By prioritizing collaboration, standardization, and fundamental security principles, the industry can deliver next-generation networks ready to meet the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of our digital future.

Source: Nokia.com