AI Powered Defence System Stops 5G Cyber Attacks in a Fraction of a Second

Published on: 10 Mar, 2026
Updated on: 11 Mar, 2026

An AI defence system, TwinGuard, has successfully detected and neutralised sophisticated 5G cyber-attacks in less than a tenth of a second, say researchers at the University of Surrey who developed the system.

The development, it is believed, will pave the way for more secure 5G and future 6G mobile networks. A spokesperson for the project said: “Modern 5G networks are becoming more flexible, easier to upgrade and cheaper to build. But that can create more opportunities for hostile hackers.”

The new system addresses this challenge using a real-time digital twin, a live virtual replica of a mobile network that updates every few milliseconds. The team paired TwinGuard with reinforcement learning AI that can anticipate suspicious behaviour and shut down attacks before they cause disruption.

To test whether TwinGuard could respond more quickly, researchers used two realistic 5G environments. Attacks were detected and blocked, it is said, in under 100 milliseconds. These included fake signals or data requests that try to overwhelm the system.

Dr Sotiris Moschoyiannis, Associate Professor in Complex Systems at the University of Surrey’s Centre for Cyber Security, who led this research study, said: “Attackers rarely come through the front door anymore. They probe, adapt and escalate in ways that traditional defences simply weren’t designed to handle.

“TwinGuard demonstrates that mobile networks can learn to recognise these behaviours as they unfold, and respond accordingly, rather than relying on pre-defined rules. That shift is essential if we want future 6G networked systems to be resilient and remain dependable in the face of increasingly agile threats.”

Dr Mohammad Shojafar, Associate Professor in Network Security at the University of Surrey’s 5G/6G Innovation Centre, said: “Static, rule-based security systems simply cannot keep pace with the speed and complexity of attacks on modern 5G networks. Our defence framework lets the AI learn directly from a virtual copy of the live network, so it understands what ‘normal’ looks like and can spot trouble before any impact.

“The fact that it can shut down attacks in under a tenth of a second shows how important real-time, AI-driven defence will be for future 6G networks.”

A spokesperson said that the research team now plans to expand the framework to larger, multi-cell environments, bringing it another step closer to deployment in future 6G systems.