Directive 2009/140/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amends Directive 2002/19/EC, on access to, and interconnection of, electronic communications networks and associated facilities, Directive 2002/20/EC on the authorization of electronic communications networks and services, and Directive 2002/21/EC, on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services,. The directive asks ENISA to contribute to the security of electronic communications and to contribute to the harmonization of technical and organizational security measures taken by the member states.
Paragraph 1 and 2 of Article 13a state that MSs should ensure that providers of public communication networks take measures to guarantee security and integrity of these networks and to ensure continuity of services provided over these networks 1. Paragraph 3 of Article 13a says that the MSs should report about significant security breaches and losses of integrity to the EC and ENISA.
In 2010, ENISA, the European Commission (EC), Ministries and Telecommunication National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs), initiated a series of meetings (workshops, conference calls) to achieve a harmonized implementation of Article 13a. In these meetings, a working group of representatives of NRA’s and EC reached consensus about two technical non‐binding documents.
- Technical guidelines for incident reporting: Guidelines to support Member States in implementing paragraph 3 of Article 13a. Paragraph 3 concerns the notification of NRAs in case of a significant security breach or loss of integrity of networks, and it concerns annual reporting of these incidents to the EC and ENISA.
- Minimal Security Measures : A list of minimum security measures (MSMs) that NRAs have to take into account when evaluating compliance of electronic communications providers to paragraph 1 and 2 of Article 13a.
The consultation period shall run from the 7th October 2011 till the 31st October 2011.
Responses may be sent to Malta Communications Authority to steve.agius@mca.org.mt
