Applying Machine Learning to Securing Cellular Networks

Talk abstract: Cellular network security is more critical than ever, given the increased complexity of these networks and the numbers of applications that depend on them, including telehealth, remote education, ubiquitous robotics and autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and Industry 4.0. In order to devise more effective defenses, a recent trend is to leverage machine learning (ML) techniques, which have become applicable because of today advanced capabilities for collecting data as well high-performance computing systems for training of ML models. Recent large language models (LLMs) are also opening new interesting directions for security applications. In this talk, I will first present a comprehensive threat analysis in the context of 5G cellular networks to give a concrete example of the magnitude of the problem of cellular network security. Then, I will present two specific applications of ML techniques for the security of cellular networks. The first application focuses on the use of natural language processing techniques to the problem of detecting inconsistencies in the “natural language specifications” of cellular network protocols. The second application addresses the design of an anomaly detection system able to detect the presence of malicious base stations and determine the type of attack. Then I’ll conclude with a discussion on research directions. Speaker(s): Elisa Bertino, Room: Room 316 (3rd floor theatre space), Bldg: Information Science Building, 135 N Bellefield Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15260