Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Communications networks are an integral part of our daily lives.
We use them in order to communicate with our friends and loved ones,
while doing our homework,
to play with friends,
to order a movie for the evening a book or the latest CD of your favourite band
while companies are using them to conduct their business transactions.
Aside from the pivotal role they play on today’s markets and the global economy,
communications networks offer new opportunities for businesses
and citizens irrespective of age or location.
The importance of communications networks to the community and the citizen’s everyday life
is manifested each time a problem occurs affecting their normal operation.
“We are using communications every ware in our daily life”
“Our society is very much dependant on a reliable and secure communications infrastructure”
Just consider the effect on your daily life caused by the unavailability
or problems of communications services such as telephone, Internet, mobile phone, SMS
Thus, resilience and security of communications networks and the services that they support
is an issue of critical importance to the EU community and its citizens having an impact
to the day-to-day operation of businesses but also affecting daily lives of EU citizens.
What is meant by the term “resilience”?
It is the ability of a communications network to protect itself as well as
recover from intentional and unintentional faults that might affect its normal operation.
At the some time, a resilient network needs to be ready to heal and recover
in situations of crises or in view of a problem or fault.
Like a musical cord, that although vibrating is elastic
and resilient to forces from all directions
the network should be able to heal and recover from faults.
“So while these are good academic issues to address”
“we must still rely on the industry and providers to make secure, safe networks available for the future”
These faults are common phenomena.
They could be caused by malicious intention
such as cyber attacks but also physical phenomena,
technical failures or even unintentional human mistakes.
Just consider a common situation where a crew performing some works of public infrastructure,
by accident destroys parts of a communications network cabling.
But, similar crisis situations can also occur under normal operating conditions
simply due to high popularity or demand of a particular service.
Recently, Europe's digital library museum and archive Europeana
crashed soon after its launch due to the overwhelming interest by Internet users across the globe
resulting in 10 million requests for information per minute.
The experience shows that neither single providers nor a country alone
could effectively detect, prevent and respond to such threats.
The European commission highlighted the importance of security and resilience
of communications networks in several important policy interventions.
In 2008, ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency,
recognised this need and devised a program with the ultimate objective
to collectively evaluate and improve the resilience of public communications networks in Europe.
“We are very happy that the European commission takes this issue seriously”
“and we are happy to provide them with knowledge and discuss with them about these networks”
By nature communication networks and the services that they support
extend beyond the borders of single nations.
At the same time it is natural to observe differences
in terms of approach but also in terms of maturity across the Member States of the EU
that hamper co-operation in a market that underpinning EU’s economy.
“There is a need for European wide cooperation”
“to enchance the resilience of e-communication networks”
Recognising that resilience is a concern for all the actors of the telecommunications value chain,
ENISA follows a holistic approach covering three axes in parallel, through
Technologies and standards
Policies and regulations
and Providers measures
“We believe that the DNS security is the key aspect”
“for making sure that the security of the internet is maintained”
“and we can build the services that we need for the future”
For each of these lines of activity ENISA takes stock of the current situation,
identifies the gaps where contribution is needed and develops best practices and guidance.
“As we are talking about resilience of communication networks and services”
“we are talking about very complex and difficult issues,”
“I think ENISA has done a very good job in putting pieces together in this complex puzzle”
To achieve its goal ENISA discusses the issue of resilience and collaborates
with experts from network operators, service providers,
network equipment vendors, academia and policy making bodies.
“Discussions between policy makers, carriers and the commercial services sector”
“is the way to make sure that we have the integrated and trusted internet that we want for the future”
To promote the results of its work and to gather input for the directions to follow,
ENISA organises Workshops on improving the resilience of networks.
“I came to the ENISA workshop to learn more what ENISA is doing in this area”
“and participate in the workshop.”
“I found it very useful”
Reliable communications networks and services
are now critical to public welfare and economic stability of our society.
Disruptions in their operation reveal
the increased dependency of our society upon them.
Experience shows that neither single provider nor a country alone
could effectively detect, prevent, and respond to such threats.
ENISA in close collaboration with all sector actors
addressed this complex area from an EU market perspective
contributing towards the vision of reliable communications networks
and services for the EU citizens.