The Fear to Come with the 5G Era

Photo by Cassidy Goldman

(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) David E. Sanger, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and national security correspondent for the New York Times, warned the audience of students and longtime listeners Tuesday of the dangers of the incoming 5G era.

“The advantage goes to the least wired countries attacking the most wired,” Sanger said regarding 5G and the possibility of a cyber-war. This warning was a part of Sanger’s speech to an audience of 350 at the University of North Florida.

Sanger compared the beginnings of the cyber world like the airplane; it snuck up on us. When the airplane was first invented it was for pure enjoyment until President Taft thought it could best be used for military surveillance during war.

“No one considered arming the thing [airplane]. Which is how cyber began,” he said. Sanger further described how the airplane quickly evolved from a mode of surveillance to the carrier of larger and larger weapons up until the nuclear bombing of World War II. He believes the will happen in the cyber world with the introduction of 5G sooner rather than later. Sanger placed the timeline of the airplane up against the cyber world proposing that we are at approximately the end of World War I. He described this as parallel by concluding that the cyber world has been all about observation, but people are now starting to learn how to make the cyber world carry a weapon.

“Everyone was carrying a mobile computer in their pocket. All I had to do was get into your pocket," Sanger said when describing how he could complete cyber-terrorism attack in today’s wired world, "You don’t have to be there to get the material,”. Sager continued his hypothetical cyber-terrorism attack by explaining that mobile phones connect to the network as soon as they are in the perimeter of the network and while connecting they carry outside access with it.

The dangers of the 5G era is a topic Sanger has discussed in multiple interviews, his most recent book, The Perfect Weapon, and in a documentary that is set to release in the near future. As a national security correspondent and a friend of many national security professionals in the United States, Sanger is passionate about taking the correct steps to protect the nation.

Denise Rose, World Affairs Council member said, “There are positives and there are negatives and it’s going to be interesting to see what ends up happening”. Referring to Sanger’s speech, Rose continued, “The abilities that people will have can also be used to hurt, so positives and negatives in the same thing”.

When asked about what he thought of Sanger’s speech, Zach Levensohn, World Affairs Council member said, “Lots of it. With technology we tend to get really excited but there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that maybe we don’t consider”. He further explained, “I’m really happy that he was able to come in and talk about this and shine some light on the darker sides of technology, but I still think that 5G is something that we just don’t understand and that it is more than just faster speeds”.

“We know what the delivery system is, we don’t know what the warhead is”Sanger said referring to a possible cyber-attack.