NIST Publishes "Guide to LTE Security", Special Publication 800-187
December 21, 2017

NIST has published a new Guide to LTE Security, as NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-187.

Cellular technology plays an increasingly large role in society as it has become the primary portal to the Internet for a large segment of the population. One of the main drivers making this change possible is the deployment of 4th generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular technologies. This publication serves as a guide to the fundamentals of how LTE networks operate and explores the LTE security architecture. This is followed by an analysis of the threats posed to LTE networks and supporting mitigations.

SP 800-187 introduces high-level LTE concepts and discusses technical LTE security mechanisms in detail. Technical readers are expected to understand fundamental networking concepts and general network security. It is intended to assist those evaluating, adopting, and operating LTE networks, specifically telecommunications engineers, system administrators, cybersecurity practitioners, and security researchers.