The Homeland Security Department’s cyber agency has assured lawmakers that it’s working to understand the potential impacts of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) on 5G communications, as the U.S. government — including the Pentagon — rushes to keep pace with China.
“We are certainly concerned about a range of risks, natural or human cause that could degrade our critical infrastructure and national critical functions,” Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the department’s Cybersecurity and infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently told lawmakers at a hearing of a House Homeland Security subcommittee. “Within CISA, our National Risk Management Center, or NRMC, is deeply focused on understanding how EMP risks could manifest to affect our national critical functions, and then understanding how critical infrastructure can adopt measures in place to reduce the likelihood of those risks occurring as part of that work,” reports Breaking Defense.
An EMP is an energy pulse that creates a powerful electromagnetic field capable of short-circuiting electronic equipment such as computers, satellites, radios, radar receivers and traffic lights. It can be caused naturally by a massive flare emanating from a solar storm, or by the deliberate detonation of a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere.
Some experts have long been skeptical of a man-made EMP threat, but Goldstein’s comments came in response to questioning by Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), who expressed concern that the government isn’t moving quickly enough to explore commercial technology that could weather an EMP event. In particular, Harshbarger noted that she recently reviewed research published by a private firm that showed two current smartphone models, Apple’s iPhone 12 and the Samsung’s Galaxy S-21 Ultra 5G, could withstand an EMP punch.
Goldstein said he was unfamiliar with that particular study, but stressed that CISA is working “closely with owners and operators of infrastructure that could be impacted, as well as with vendors of solutions that may provide technology that could be available as solutions.”
The research to which Harshbarger was referring was commissioned by Arlington, VA, startup SEMPRE, which specializes in electromagnetic hardening for cellular communications up to military standards (known as MIL-SPEC). It was conducted by another company specializing in electromagnetic hardening, Jaxon Engineering, based in Colorado Springs, CO.
SEMPRE CEO Robert Spalding told Breaking Defense that while certain smartphones have inherent protection, most of the cell networks they would use do not. “Infrastructure today is not hard; it’s not survivable — at least what we’re talking about here, that is commercial infrastructure,” Spalding said.
“One of the challenges that you have today is that in whether you’re talking about China or Russia or Iran or North Korea, they all see EMP as an asymmetric capability in their ability to go after a rival or a potential target,” he elaborated.
SEMPRE is using commercial off-the-shelf technology to build battlefield cell towers and communications networks. This spring, the firm wrapped up a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, contract with the Defense Department, said Spalding. “We completed that, now we’re working on that next phase,” said the retired B-2 pilot and Air Force nuclear operator.
The SBIR contract was “to demonstrate how you take a 5G core and secure it against vulnerabilities and do other things. We’ve gone above and beyond on securing the 5G core, in terms of how we make sure that that core can’t be breached,” Spalding explained.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
Reader Interactions