"According to the electronic communications services providers’ reports, the number of security incidents that occurred in 2017 increased by 20% compared to 2016, but the average number of connections affected by each incident significantly decreased, by almost 38%. Similarly to the previous years, mobile connections are the most affected by these security incidents (mobile internet and telephony)", said Sorin Grindeanu, president of ANCOM.

Affected connections and incident duration

According to ANCOM’s Report on incidents that affected the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services (available in Romanian) published on the Authority’s website 334 such incidents were registered in 2017, affecting more than 10 million connections.

The most connections affected by significant incidents reported to ANCOM in 2017 were mobile telephony ones (more than 6.1 million affected connections), followed by mobile internet services (more than 3 million affected connections), fixed telephony (approximately 1 million affected connections) and fixed internet (approximately 1 million connections), the least affected being audio-visual programme retransmission connections (approximately 250 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 - 29,755 connections, 38% less compared to 2016 (with an average of 47,859 connections affected by one incident). The average duration of a significant incident was approximately 8 hours and 49 minutes, whereas the total duration of security incidents reported for 2017 was 2,945 hours (twice as much as in 2016). The largest number of security incidents occurred in Constanta county (40 incidents), followed by the counties of Vaslui (35 incidents), Timis and Buzau (32, respectively 31 incidents).

Causes of significant incidents reported

Most of the incidents (73%) were caused by external factors (e.g. power outage or accidental sectioning of the fibre optic etc.), 15% of the incidents occurred due to system errors (software or hardware), and 9% due to natural phenomena (e.g. heavy snow and storms affecting various pieces of equipment).

About ANCOM’s Report

ANCOM’s Report on incidents that affected the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services in 2017 was drawn up based on the data reported by providers, this being the fifth year when the Authority collects such data, following the entry into force of Decision no. 512/2013, establishing the providers’ obligation to notify ANCOM regarding the incidents with significant impact on the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services, i.e. incidents that affect more than 5,000 connections for at least one hour.