Research & Insights on 5G Risks in Military Movement Scenarios
Client
NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE)Client Overview:
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (NATO CCDCOE) is the leading dedicated hub for NATO allies and like-minded nations to jointly raise their cyber defence capabilities. The heart of the Centre is a diverse array of international experts from military, governmental, academic, and industrial backgrounds, currently representing 39 member nations from across the globe.
The Centre provides valuable expertise on cyber defence across strategic, legal, operational, and technical realms. It conducts research, delivers training and exercises, and develops doctrines, standards, and concepts to support and strengthen collective cyber resilience.
The Challenge:
Civitta compiled a research report that evaluates the potential interactions between military movement scenarios in 2030 (specifically involving seaports and road transport) and evolving 5G technology, highlighting the expected benefits of 5G use cases for these movements. The core objective was to alert politicians and military decision-makers to how the integration of military 5G networks within commercial technology and infrastructure will impact military movement.
This awareness is crucial for strategic decisions the Alliance must make, in order to avoid being unprepared for a potential conflict. To achieve this, the report provides an evidence-based analysis of relevant 5G technological advancements and proposes a risk mitigation framework focused on critical areas: cybersecurity, infrastructure resilience, and operational safety.
Our Approach:
Civitta served as the primary project coordinator, bringing together experts in telecommunications, ICT, SmartPort infrastructure and cyber security, defence, and intelligence.
The objective was to produce a research study analyzing potential military movement scenarios across Europe into the Baltics.
The focus was on infrastructure requirements, deployed hardware and systems architecture, including a comprehensive cybersecurity and threat analysis. The study was done in 2 phases:
Phase I:
This phase focused on gathering relevant information to develop military scenarios for two specific use cases.
It also assessed the technical and digital feasibility of integrating these scenarios into country-specific telecommunication infrastructure.
Phase II:
After developing the potential military movement scenarios, the potential cyber security and physical attack vectors and systems architectural needs were identified. These elements are crucial for the operability, and need to be fulfilled for the used network to be safe from them.
In close cooperation with the telecommunications and intelligence experts, thorough risk mitigation guidelines were developed, which both the local infrastructure operators and telecommunication companies should support in the military movement scenarios. This would serve as the guidance for both military and policymakers in the decision making process in the development of the critical communication infrastructure.
Services Provided:
- Collection and analysis of market intelligence and use cases based on pre-feasibility studies of major telecommunication companies
- Combined qualitative and quantitative assessment of technologies for use in the military movement scenarios
- Review and analysis of cybersecurity and physical attack risks
- Formulation of technology and architectural prioritization recommendations
- Project management and stakeholder, partnerships engagement
Result & Impact:
As a result, Civitta created a roadmap and holistic guidance pertaining to the necessary activities and incentives that support the potential future scenarios, including cybersecurity management and a security first approach was created. It included recommendations on close cooperation between different stakeholders and unification of telecommunications standards.
The report also outlined the necessity of developing a comprehensive 5G cybersecurity strategy and developing engagement in building secure systems and networks from the start. by providing guidelines and criteria for commercial partners on security monitoring and enforcement.
Read the full report here“For Civitta, it was an opportunity to be part of a project contributing to the field of telecommunications, cybersecurity and defence. Through thorough project management and stakeholder engagement together with subject matter experts, we were able to contribute to the development of 5G use in the military context” – Hendrik Ploom, Manager, Civitta Estonia
“Civitta expressed an ability to navigate in challenging technological developments and impacts it brings to our society and defence sector. Their key to success is to engineer complex topics into tangible components, compiling them into practical narrative.” – Mattias Männi, 5G Program Manager, CCDCOE
