At the 2026 Mobile World Congress, Siemens and Palo Alto Networks unveiled a validated cybersecurity solution for private 5G networks in industrial environments. The proposal integrates Siemens’ Private 5G infrastructure with Palo Alto Networks’ next-generation firewall (NGFW), optimized for artificial intelligence, and has undergone extensive testing to ensure high availability, resilience, and operational continuity.
This solution is designed to enable manufacturers to meet stringent industrial security standards without sacrificing the performance required for their increasingly AI-supported production processes.
Michael Metzler, Vice President of Horizontal Cybersecurity Management for Digital Industries at Siemens, explained that each industrial sector has different protection needs. He noted that the architecture jointly developed with Palo Alto Networks allows for adapting secure 5G connectivity to the specificities of each production environment, ensuring performance without compromising security.
Dharminder Debisarun, Head of Cybersecurity for Smart Industries at Palo Alto Networks, highlighted that the collaboration between both companies goes beyond connectivity, laying the foundations for a smarter, more automated, and secure industry from its design stage.
The verified solution offers industrial-grade security
Data-driven production systems require wireless connectivity for countless sensors and mobile assets, making private 5G infrastructure essential. At the same time, cyberattacks can lead to costly downtime or compromise worker safety. Additionally, regulations like NIS2 mandate defense-in-depth security architectures that comply with IEC 62443 standards. Conventional IT security solutions often cause performance bottlenecks or fail to address the specific threats faced by OT in industrial settings.
The collaboration between Siemens and Palo Alto Networks addresses this gap. Palo Alto Networks has specifically optimized its NGFW technology for Siemens’ Private 5G infrastructure through extensive testing conducted by Siemens across multiple deployment scenarios. This verification process confirms that the solution provides industrial-grade security without sacrificing the low latency or high performance needed for real-time production systems, marking a key difference from generic IT security approaches.
Three security elements
The solution combines three elements to strengthen cybersecurity. Siemens has specifically tested and validated the solution for industrial environments at its Digital Connectivity Lab in Erlangen, Germany:
- Siemens Private 5G Infrastructure: provides deterministic on-premises wireless connectivity for mobile and moving assets, with built-in security features that protect the core network infrastructure. The solution ensures data sovereignty and low-latency communications independent of mobile network operators.
- SINEC Security Monitor: Siemens software for continuous, passive, and non-intrusive security monitoring in on-premises production environments. The system detects anomalies in communications, unauthorized devices, or potential threats without affecting production operations.
- Palo Alto Networks Firewall: offers layer 7 security and protocol-specific analysis optimized for OT environments. Unlike generic IT security solutions, it provides deep packet inspection for OT protocols, maintaining low latency essential for real-time control applications — now extended to wireless communications via private 5G networks. This includes protection against malware, intrusion attempts, and data exfiltration without performance degradation typical of standard security tools.
This verified architecture meets the IEC 62443 standards for industrial automation and control system security, while maintaining the performance characteristics critical for time-sensitive production applications. The solution is already available as part of Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio.