INVITED SPEAKER SEMINAR - One Step Forward, and How Many Back? Securing the Next Generation of Cellular Networks

Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. 

Location: EV 3.309

Abstract

The Fifth Generation of Cellular Networks (5G) promises increased security compared to previous generations. Indeed, attacks jeopardizing the users privacy stemming from the lack of encryption of critical information have been solved with stronger protocols. However, 5G still does not envision encryption at the signal control level, providing attackers a threat surface to exploit. Furthermore, the need for openness and interoperability of these network stemming the creation of the Open-Radio Access Network paved the way to attackers to exploit a novel protocols and interfaces. In this talk, we will overview recent findings in the security issues in 5G networks and O-RAN, focusing both on the network and the infrastructure needed to develop these networks. We will show how attackers can still be able to infer users' sensitive data and control the behavior of the cellular network via simple attacks. We will then discuss possible directions to improve cellular network security with stronger protocols and flow-integrity checks.

Biography

Dr. Alessandro Brighente is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at the University of Padova, Italy. He obtained his Ph.D. in Information Engineering from the University of Padova in 2021. He was a visiting researcher at Nokia Bell Labs, Stuttgart, the University of Washington, Seattle, TU Delft, The Netherlands, and Northeastern University, Boston. He served as TPC for several international conferences, including S&P (Oakland), Asia CCS, RAID, ESORICS, and WWW. He was general chair for RAID2024, and the program chair for several workshops. He is Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. He is part of several industrial and research projects, including EU-funded ones, and he is Grant Awarding Coordinator for the BEiNG-WISE COST Action. His current research interests include security and privacy in wireless communications, cyber-physical systems, and secure software development.