Background
The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is executing a Multiannual Thematic Program (MTP1) with the ultimate objective to collectively evaluate and improve the resiliency of public eCommunications in the EU. Public eCommunications network is every electronic communications network that is used for the provision of publicly available electronic communications services. Internet access and backbone networks, fixed line and mobile voice networks are examples of public eCommunications networks.
By the term resilient we characterise the networks that provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in face of faults (unintentional, intentional, or naturally caused) affecting their normal operation. Improving the resilience of a network is an issue of risk management which includes risk identification, evaluation and acceptance or mitigation. A wide accepted list of risks to the resilience of networks includes flash crowd events; cyber attacks; outages of other support services; natural disasters and system failings. The mitigation of identified risks involves technical measures such as resilient design; resilient transmission media; resilient equipment and technologies which improve resilience.
In 2008, ENISA carried out with the collaboration of all relevant sector actors a number of data gathering activities on the three axis presented below:
- Analysing the policies and regulations that exist across the EU countries as well as how National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) implement current regulatory measures;
- Assessing how providers ensure availability and integrity of networks and services (e.g. through measures that operators take);
- Assessing whether existing technologies (e.g. IPV6, MPLS, DNSSEC) satisfy the needs and requirements of network and service providers in terms of improving the resilience of their network infrastructure;
The collected input was analyzed in direct consultation with experts from industry, academia and policy making bodies ENISA started working towards the preparation of guidelines on policies/incentives, practices and technologies with the aim to contribute to the improvement of public communications EU networks in terms of resilience. These guidelines are mainly addressed towards regulators, policy makers as well as network operators.
Against this background, ENISA has organised a two days workshop, on November 12th and 13th, where the findings of the stock taking activities carried out during 2008 will be presented including the possible directions in terms of recommendations that the Agency will follow in the course of next year. On the first day of the workshop (12/11/2008) the rational of MTP1 and results of the various stock takings have been presented while on the second day (13/11/2008) the relevant sector actors have presented their views.