Firewall and Malware Challenges for Virtualized Telecom Networks As 5 th generation telecommunication infrastructure continues to rollout in trial and steady-state phases globally, there has been a growing focus on new cybersecurity risks that are being introduced into operator environments. Compared to legacy telecom systems, the 5G backbone will rely heavily on Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to enable greater flexibility for management of services. NFV can be described as a technology that allows traditionally hardware-based processes to run and be configured in virtual machines—reducing reliance on single-purpose physical equipment. SDN, on the other hand, enables high-level and centralized control over this virtual environment, where control and data planes are operated and administered separately. While significant operational and cost benefits are offered by this NFV-SDN utilization, telecom providers must also consider new firewall configuration challenges and the rapidly evolving threat of malicious code propagation across the network control plane.