UK National Cyber Security Centre seeks private 5G partners

The UK National Cyber Security Centre requested expressions of interest for future collaboration and procurement work on secure and resilient private 5G, with an initial deadline at the end of August.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre said in an online post that it wants to collaborate with organisations developing technologies, products, services and research for secure, resilient and deployable private 5G networks. The agency said potential participants can include companies with products already on the market and organisations with new security approaches.

The National Cyber Security Centre said current private 5G networks are changing enterprise connectivity, industrial operations, critical services, remote working environments and emerging digital applications. It also said many deployments depend on fixed infrastructure and conventional authentication modes and security approaches that may not provide the operational and cyber resilience needed for future use cases.

The National Cyber Security Centre said next-generation private 5G systems should improve ease and speed of deployment, reliability, and security and access management. The agency said this work forms part of its research portfolio and will help it identify organisations for possible future collaboration and procurement opportunities in resilient and secure private 5G. The National Cyber Security Centre is part of GCHQ.