Security Threats to 5G Networks for Social Robots in Public Spaces: A Survey

Abstract

This paper surveys security threats to 5G-enabled wireless access networks for social robots in public spaces (SRPS). The use of social robots (SR) in public areas requires specific Quality of Service (QoS) planning to meet its unique requirements. Its 5G threat landscape entails more than cybersecurity threats that most previous studies focus on. This study examines the 5G wireless RAN for SRPS from three perspectives: SR and wireless access points, the ad hoc network link between SR and user devices, and threats to SR and users' communication equipment. The paper analyses the security threats to confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, authorisation, and privacy from the SRPS security objectives perspective. We begin with an overview of SRPS use cases and access network requirements, followed by 5G security standards, requirements, and the need for a more representative threat landscape for SRPS. The findings confirm that the RAN of SRPS is most vulnerable to physical, side-channel, intrusion, injection, manipulation, and natural and malicious threats. The paper presents existing mitigation to the identified attacks and recommends including physical level security (PLS) and post-quantum cryptography in the early design of SRPS. The insights from this survey will provide valuable risk assessment and management input to researchers, industrial practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders of SRPS.INDEX TERMS Social robots, 5G, threat landscape, security, privacy, centralised ledger databases, multiaccess edge computing (MEC).

Security Aspects of Social Robots in Public Spaces: A Systematic Mapping Study

“…SR could potentially amass and analyse vast amounts of personal information, akin to social media platforms and digital smartphone assistants. Notably, these robots present a unique challenge: users may have limited control over data collection processes, creating a potential imbalance between technology and individual privacy rights [10].…”

“…Applicable standards include 3GPP 5G advance standards (security architecture and procedures for 5G system release 18-TS 33.501 v 18.0.0); WPA3: Wi-Fi Protected Access III by the Wi-Fi Alliance; NIST SP 800-77, 800-52, and 800-113, addressing different aspects of IPsec, SSL, and TLS security; and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) RFC 8446 on TLS v1.3 and 7296 on IKEv2, widely used for IPSec VPNs. Use cases heavily influence communication security standards; hence, there is a need for SRPS use cases and standards [10]. Almost all papers addressing cybersecurity reaffirmed the need for communication security as a theme.…”