Boosting 5G is not without challenges for its users People don’t understand Internet of Things devices are insecure

By Vindhya Pabolu

5G technology can increase the risk of advanced botnets, privacy violations, and faster data extraction. People remain unaware of the fact that the more IoT (Internet of Things) devices, the greater is the problem. They fail to understand that IoT devices are insecure; security is often not built in from the start.

Many 5G users say they face a lot of connectivity problems and security breaches.

Gopalan Das, a businessman who uses 5G network explained to The Observer:“My mobile changed to 5G recently. I faced a lot of connectivity problems. There were some black spots where I lost connectivity completely and faced a lot of problems. It’s okay in some situations but what about emergency?”

Asked about the security issues he further said: “I didn’t give much thought about it but I came across a lot of situations where my phone screen goes blank and some glitches happen, I never tried to find about it.”

Yashwanth S, who works at Fintech Cooperation and is a 5G user, said: “I faced a lot of connectivity issues. My mobile often used to get unwanted messages like OTPs, mails. My mobile would go blank. The issues were unbearable in the initial stages.”

Krishna Aditya, a medical student and 5G user, said: “After using 5G, I noticed more spam messages and ads. We faced similar problems with 4G but 5G can be more vulnerable for the easily exploited.”

According to a report by Trend Micro and GSMA Intelligence, 68 per cent of operators sell private wireless networks to enterprise customers, and the rest will do so by 2025. And they know that cybersecurity will be key: 45 per cent say it is “extremely important” to invest in it to achieve