CHALLENGE
Protection and Resilience for Critical Telecommunications Infrastructure
Today, critical telecommunications infrastructures must do far more than simply provide physical security or traditional IT security. What is needed are comprehensive protection and resilience strategies that take into account physical attacks, cyberattacks, power outages, technical failures, natural disasters, and human error in equal measure. After all, even the failure of a single network node can disrupt communication services on a large scale.
Operators must therefore secure their infrastructure in such a way that networks and services remain available even under unplanned conditions. This includes resilient systems, emergency and redundancy plans, clear reporting and response procedures, and a coordinated approach to physical and cybersecurity. Today, the CER Directive and the NIS2 requirements are particularly relevant for Europe.