Privacy-first Security Enablers for 6G Networks

Privacy is considered a key pillar in EU research and development activities towards 6G.

In the 6G multi-actor pluralistic environment, privacy is pivotal, not only for the end users, but also for all involved stakeholders; and it needs to be taken into account as a key requirement in all technologies of the network stack, including security mechanisms.

In other words, the challenge for security enablers in future networks is, on the one hand, to address the significantly widened 6G threat landscape, while on the other hand to preserve the privacy of all actors in the 6G chain. Intrusive security cannot be any more considered acceptable.

In this context, the mission of PRIVATEER is to pave the way for 6G “privacy-first security” by studying, designing and developing innovative security enablers for 6G networks, following a privacy-by-design approach.The PRIVATEER ""privacy-first"" 6G security framework will consist of a set of enablers built around four pillars: i) decentralised robust security analytics, towards avoiding data centralisation as well as AI mechanisms hardened against adversarial actions resulting in privacy breaches; ii) privacy-aware slicing and security service orchestration, introducing ""privacy intent"" as an additional factor affecting network service lifecycle management; iii) distributed attestation and identity check, making authentication and integrity verification more privacy-friendly; and iv) searchable encryption mechanisms for privacy-preserving Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) sharing.

The integrated PRIVATEER framework will be deployed in a campus-wide B5G test network and evaluated against relevant vertical use case scenarios.

The security enablers developed in PRIVATEER will complement (and be compatible with) “native” 5G/6G security controls as standardized by 3GPP for basic functionalities (network attachment, authentication, authorization etc.) to achieve a holistic, privacy-friendly security solution for future networks.