The Trump administration’s so-called “race” with China to build new fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks is speeding toward a network vulnerable to Chinese (and other) cyberattacks. We cannot allow the hype about 5G to overshadow the absolute necessity that it be secure. Our current wireless networks are fourth-generation, or 4G. Iranians hacking the delivery of “Game of Thrones” isn’t good, but the real transformational promise of 5G goes far beyond wireless cable and its security is much more critical. The autonomous car is something vastly different, in which the 5G network allows computers to orchestrate a flood of information from multitudes of input sensors for real time, on-the-fly decision-making.

Source: New York Times January 21, 2019 10:52 UTC