18 July 2013
18.07.2013
The damage of equipment and cables because of the construction works and the power supply breakdowns are the main causes which affected the provision of telephony, internet or audiovisual programme retransmission services for at least one hour during 2012. The average length of an incident was 8.65 hours.
For the second year in a row, ANCOM conducted a survey on the incidents with significant impact on the security and integrity of the electronic communications networks and services, by sending the providers a questionnaire aimed at quantifying and evaluating those incidents which affected more than 5,000 connections for at least one hour in 2012. The survey covered 44 providers of electronic communications networks and services, totalling more than 90% of the electronic communications market, in terms of revenues registered in 2012.
The questioned providers reported a total of 165 incidents which affected the security and integrity of the electronic communications networks and services in 2012. About 40% of these have been determined by internal causes of the communications providers (equipment faults, software failures, human errors); 60% however have been generated by external causes (construction works and power supply breakdowns, natural phenomena, cable theft etc.).
The majority of the reported incidents was generated by third parties accidentally (39%), as a result of the damage of some equipment and cables because of construction works or power supply breakdowns. 37% of the incidents were caused by system faults such as software failures, blocking or damage of some equipment, configuration errors, network congestions, while the rest of the reported incidents were generated by natural phenomena, malicious actions and human errors.
Each incident occurred in 2012 affected an average estimated number of 72,224 connections. In total, the incidents affected approx. 12 million connections. Most incidents harmed the services of fixed telephony or with limited mobility and the services of internet access through permanent connections at fixed locations (approx. 50% of the incidents). Furthermore, the resources most affected by incidents were the fibre optic sections (30%) and the equipment of the GSM radio access networks (23%).
The total length of the incidents reported for 2012 amounted to 1,428 hours, whereas the average length of one incident stands around 8.65 hours. The incidents caused by natural phenomena (mainly generated by heavy snowfalls in the winter months) lasted longer than any other type of incident, i.e. 31 hours on average. As a matter of fact, most of the last year’s incidents (15%) took place in January.
75% of the incidents have been discovered instantly, while 25% have been observed within a timeframe of 1 to 32 minutes, with only three cases where the incident has been detected within a period of 2 to 7 hours.
About half of the reported incidents could have hindered or disturbed the emergency calls to 112.
Based on the results of the surveys conducted in 2012 and 2013, ANCOM has elaborated and will soon adopt a national procedure on the periodical reporting of the security incidents with significant impact and, in correlation, on the minimum measures to be taken by the providers in order to improve the level of security and integrity of the electronic communications networks and services.