Press Releases

The number of mobile connections affected by security incidents is growing

10. 07 2017
 
 
According to ANCOM’s Report on incidents that affected the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services, 279 incidents with significant impact affected the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services in 2016, impacting 12 million connections, twice as much compared to 2015. Most incidents were registered on the mobile connections segment (mobile telephony and internet).
 
Affected connections and incident duration
The most connections affected by significant incidents reported to ANCOM in 2016 were mobile telephony ones (more than 5.6 million affected connections), followed by mobile internet services (more than 5 million affected connections), fixed telephony (approximately 570 thousand affected connections) and fixed internet (approximately 470 thousand connections), the least affected being audio-visual programme retransmission connections (approximately 450 thousand).
According to the data reported by the providers, last year, one incident with significant impact on the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services affected, on average, 47,859 connections, twice as many compared to 2015 (with an average of 22,773 connections affected by one incident). The average duration of a significant incident was approximately 7.5 hours, whereas the total duration of security incidents reported for 2016 is 1,347 hours. The largest number of security incidents occurred in Bucharest and Ilfov County, followed by the counties of Constanța, Teleorman and Călărași.
Causes of the reported significant incidents
7% of the incidents were caused by human error (e.g. equipment misconfiguration and misoperation) and natural phenomena (e.g. heavy snow and storms affecting various pieces of equipment), 27% of the incidents occurred due to system errors (software or hardware), the majority of significant incidents (66%) being determined by external factors (e.g. power outage or accidental sectioning of the fibre optic etc.).
About ANCOM’s Report
ANCOM’s Report on incidents that affected the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services in 2016 was drawn up based on the data reported by providers, this being the fourth year when the Authority collects such data, following the entry into force of Decision no. 512/2013, establishing the providers’ obligation to notify ANCOM on the incidents with significant impact on the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services, i.e. on the incidents that affected more than 5,000 connections for at least one hour. 
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