05.06.2020

The data collected from the providers and analysed by ANCOM indicate an important growth in the number of security incidents with a significant impact in 2019 compared to 2018 – by over 40% (from 556 to 794). However, the operators reported an average repair time of less than 6 hours, with only a slight increase from the previous year.

Affected connections

According to the figures reported by the providers of telecommunications services on the incidents which affected the security and integrity of the electronic communications networks and services, 794 incidents with significant impact were registered in 2019, up 43% compared to 2018. These affected a total number of more than 23 million connections. 

Number of affected connections per service

Fixed telephony, mobile telephony and SMS, fixed internet and fixed data transmissions, mobile internet and mobile data transmissions, retransmission of audio-visual media programmes

Compared to 2017 and 2018, when mobile telephony and SMS connections were the most affected ones, in 2019 the connections most affected by significant incidents were those belonging to mobile internet and mobile data transmissions (approx. 10.47 million connections), followed by mobile telephony and SMS (approx. 9.16 million connections), audio-visual programme retransmission connections (approx. 1.47 million), fixed telephony (approx. 1.21 million connections), while the least affected were fixed internet and fixed data transmissions (approx. 1.19 million connections).  

Last year, an incident with significant impact on the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services affected on average 28,859 connections, more than in 2018, when an incident affected on average 24 thousand connections.

The total duration of the incidents reported in 2019 was 4,573 hours, going up from the previous year (2,808 hours). The average duration of an incident was 5 hours and 46 minutes, also on a slightly upward trend compared to 2018 (5 hours and 3 minutes), but shorter compared to 2017 (8 hours and 49 minutes).

Geographic distribution

Regarding the geographic area affected, in 542 cases (68% of the total number of incidents) the incidents affected resources in one county, while four incidents had a countrywide impact.

Teleorman was the most affected county, recording 90 incidents with significant impact on the operation of electronic communications networks and services, followed by Giurgiu with 69 incidents, Gorj with 68 incidents and Olt with 67 incidents. The least affected counties in 2019 were Tulcea (13 incidents), Covasna, Salaj and Botosani (14 incidents each).

Affected resources

Concerning the resources affected, most of the incidents had an impact on the means of transmission, base stations and mobile controllers and equipment in transmission nodes.

20 incidents affected several categories of resources simultaneously and had multiple causes (natural phenomena, simultaneous occurrence of two different events of malicious actions).

ANCOM Report

ANCOM’s Report on the significant incidents that affected the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services in 2019 was drawn up based on the data reported by providers. 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.