The Working Group (WG) on Threat Evaluation is one of four WGs for the ICT Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) Task Force. Composed of of sector members, subject matter experts, and representatives from across the Federal government, the purpose of this WG is to identify processes and criteria for threat-based evaluation of ICT suppliers, products, and services.

5G is the next generation of wireless networks, building upon existing 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) infrastructure and improving the bandwidth, capacity, and reliability of wireless broadband services. It is intended to meet increasing data and communication requirements, including capacity for tens of billions of connected devices that will make up the Internet of Things (IoT), ultra-low latency required for critical near-real time communications, and faster speeds to support emerging technologies. 5G is expected to bring security improvements and a better user experience, but supply chain, deployment, network security, and competition and choice vulnerabilities may affect the security and resilience of 5G networks.

These are the agendas for the CIPAC Defense Industrial Base Supply Chain Task Force Agendas.

U.S. critical infrastructure relies on Information and Communications Technology (ICT)—defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as “the capture, storage, retrieval, processing, display, representation, presentation, organization, management, security, transfer, and interchange of data and information”—for daily operations and functionality. The Design, Development and Production, Distribution, Acquisition and Deployment, Maintenance, and Disposal phases of the ICT supply chain are susceptible to the malicious or inadvertent introduction of vulnerabilities such as malicious software and hardware; counterfeit components; and poor product designs, manufacturing processes, and maintenance procedures.