Abstract: Systems and methods for selective User Plane protection in a 5G virtual RAN are provided. A method performed by a gNB Central Unit (gNB-CU) for communicating with a gNB-Distributed Unit (gNB-DU) includes determining whether to selectively encrypt a PDU to be sent to the gNB-DU if the PDU is not otherwise encrypted. In response to determining to selectively encrypt, the method includes encrypting the PDU to be sent to the gNB-DU. In response to determining to not selectively encrypt, the method includes passing the PDU to be sent to the gNB-DU. In this way, additional security is provided while performance impact is minimized. In some embodiments, this provides a lower overhead on the gNB-CU-UP side compared to applying a generic protection of all PDUs. Additionally, the latency overhead is limited since a secure session establishment and handshake is confined to the gNB-CU-UP-SEG domain instead of gNB-CU-UP to gNB-DU.