5G security is undergoing a paradigm shift, driven by the rapid convergence of 5G technology and artificial intelligence, empowering organizations to combat increasingly sophisticated cyber threats with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

This evolution in cybersecurity is critical to address the evolving threat landscape, most notably in the context of 5G networks and AI-powered applications, according to Anand Oswal (pictured), senior vice president and general manager at Palo Alto Networks Inc.

Palo Alto Networks’ Anand Oswal talks with theCUBE about the impact of AI on 5G security, collaborative ecosystem approaches and the growing need for robust security measures to address increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

“If you think of AI pod application, it’s really the third wave of application development because it’s no longer taking an application, a model and plugging it in,” Oswal said. “You’re bringing an entire AI infrastructure, tools, data sets [and] plugins, [and] all of these talk to each other. They talk to the outside world, [and] they do amazing things for you. You can have a translation, you can have some credit card transactions to their models, but they’re having access to sensitive data, and how do you secure that?”

Oswal spoke with theCUBE’s Dave Vellante and Savannah Peterson at MWC25, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the impact of AI on 5G security, collaborative ecosystem approaches and the growing need for robust security measures in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. (* Disclosure below.)

The power of AI in 5G threat detection and prevention

AI plays an increasingly critical role in threat detection and prevention when it comes to 5G security, according to Oswal. AI-powered security solutions can analyze vast amounts of data in real time, enabling organizations to identify and respond to threats faster and more accurately. This capability is crucial in the face of the growing sophistication and speed of cyberattacks, especially with the rise of 5G networks.

“The most important outcome that we get from customers are the number of threats that they’re not able to stop, or they’re getting breached,” Oswal said. “We are stopping … 30.8 billion … attacks every single day. We are able to stop it because we have what we call Precision AI … a combination of machine learning [and] deep learning infused with gen AI to give us a very holistic solution. You can have good AI when you have good data.”

The scale and sophistication of these attacks require advanced AI-driven solutions to ensure comprehensive 5G security, according to Oswal. Traditional security methods can no longer protect against the evolving threat landscape.

“The threat landscape today — I call it the three S’s,” Oswal explained. “It’s increasing in scale, it’s increasing in sophistication and speed. If you rewind the clock [to] 10 [or] 12 years ago, we were the first company to introduce machine learning for sandboxing or WildFire, what we call our product. People said, ‘You can’t send this data to cloud; it’s not going to work.’

The future of 5G security: A collaborative ecosystem approach

A joint effort across the industry is necessary to ensure the security and resilience of 5G security in the coming years, according to Oswal. This effort requires collaboration among service providers, equipment manufacturers and security vendors to develop and implement comprehensive security solutions.

“Today, any networks in private 5G are built with security as an afterthought,” Oswal said. That’s why we built this whole private 5G ecosystem. We have many partners … with folks like Nokia [and] NTD Data [and] with Nvidia [and] OneLayer because this is [our] ecosystem approach.”

Moreover, this collaborative ecosystem fosters innovation in monetizing 5G infrastructure. For consumers, partnerships offer secure connectivity services, preventing phishing and malware attacks, according to Oswal.

“We’re seeing amazing traction on Prisma [secure access service edge] 5G,” he said. “It gives telcos a new avenue to monetize for enterprise customers without changing their co-infrastructure, which they’ve invested billions on.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of MWC25:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for MWC25. The sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE