The lab will go beyond looking at individual network elements and focus on the larger context of network use and abuse scenarios, Nokia says.

Nokia provides context: 5G continues to see the nature and scale of information networks evolving as well as the scale of security threats.

However, this scale left vulnerabilities, with Nokia warning that there are now more avenues of attack open to hackers, state actors, and corporate espionage due to interworking endpoints, extensive use of open-source software and large-scale use of 5G.

As the central lab dedicated solely to security forensics and research, the Advanced Security Testing and Research (ASTaR) lab will use and devlop tools and techniques to assess the security resilience of 5G networks, as well as their associated software, hardware and applications.

ASTaR will assess results to address emerging security threats. Lab researchers will engage with the cybersecurity community to identify emerging threat vectors and potential vulnerabilities.

“5G will enable countless new services for consumers, government and businesses, and the industry must be hyper-vigilant in ensuring these 5G ecosystems are secure. To demonstrate our leadership and commitment to security, Nokia will be the first to inaugurate a lab in the US with the singular mission of identifying and preventing cybersecurity attacks. ASTaR lab will be an ideal testing ground to assess security in the larger context of network use and abuse scenarios,” Nokia chief strategy and technology officer Nishant Batra says.

Nokia says the lab will share cybersecurity knowledge with its enterprise and government customers.

Nokia will partner with customers to consider attack scenarios against networks and observe how security measures will fare against real security incursions.

ASTaR lab will be staffed by US-based specialists in cybersecurity and is located on Nokia’s Dallas campus.

ASTaR will leverage the security research capabilities of Nokia Bell Labs.

Nokia’s Dallas office also features the Executive Experience Centre, Energy Innovation Centre, O-RAN Collaboration and Testing Centre, and Cloud Collaboration Hub and Nokia Services Lab.

This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 10 May 2022.