Device Tracking Threats in 5G Network

Abstract

Development of IoT, mobile devices and AI have triggered 5G network deployment. The new standard of telecom communication will exceed the limitations of the existing network and create new ecosystem with incorporated different industries, including emergency and critical services, security, healthcare. A new standard, design, solution always triggers new threats. When we are talking about mobile devices, generally they are used for everyday activities by end users. Therefor the risk of PII, sensitive data leakage is significantly increased. Our research was oriented on assessing end user privacy related to LBS threats in 5G networks. During the research, different experimental works were done to compare which method of locating device is less noisy for determining end-user location without their additional permissions. According to the results of our experimental study, cell-towers for device locating is more effective than using standard approach - GNSS method. By theoretical studies and practical analysis of 5G telecom standard, study shows that high-band from operating spectrum, can be used to determine device location using only with one cell tower, instead of standard approach – by the information from minimum three visible cell-towers. The only thing which can limit the process is switch function, which is responsible for smooth roaming between towers. We have intercepted the switching process and forced device to stay connected on mmWave tower, without measuring the signal strength. Our research objectives were: how 5G network architecture effect on UE location privacy? Which operating spectrum of 5G network is more vulnerable and to assess the scale of this vulnerability.