Security in Telecoms sector in focus of 2nd meeting of ENISA’s electronic communications reference group

Objective:

The objective of the group is to discuss and share experiences on security related issues in the telecom sector and to point to topics that need attention at EU level.

Meeting Highlights:

• Telefónica showcased a solution they are developing on information sharing between providers. Experts stressed a need for peer to peer information sharing mechanisms that can be easily deployed. Key is to start small and concrete and to include stakeholders organically. 
• The running ENISA study on methodologies for identification of Critical Information Infrastructure and different implementations across Europe was discussed. Providers presented their approaches and a discussion was held on harmonization of critical infrastructure categorization and high availability requirements.

• Due to the cross border nature of infrastructure connectivity the group discussed possible approaches to incident reporting across borders.
• Big data was discussed and the providers shared their views on how to approach the increasing amount of data from a security and privacy point of view.
• ENISA's 2014 study on procurement of equipment and managed services for core operations was discussed. Providers would like to see guidelines regarding requirements on vendors and outsourcing partners when it comes to security and resilience.
• Incident reports that are submitted to ENISA by the telecom regulators could be made accessible also to providers in an anonymous way in order to learn from experiences in dealing with incidents. Providers at the meeting thought this would be beneficial and a model could be to opt-in: If you want to share you also get access.  

ENISA will continue to build up the electronic communications reference group to get input on burning issues, test ideas and act as a bridge to national telecom regulators, the European Commission and actors in other sectors.

For more information about the ENISA Electronic Communications Reference Groups: https://resilience.enisa.europa.eu/ecrg