Page 106 - SAMENA Trends - February-March 2021

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

EU Charts Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for 5G

An EU-wide cybersecurity certification scheme for 5G networks launch of a year-long probe of the bloc’s security standards in the
will be rolled out across the bloc in a bid to patch technical field. “But from the information gathered so far, member states
vulnerabilities in next-generation mobile communications, the seem to be progressing at a different pace as we implement this
European Commission said. The move comes as part of the EU’s measure.” Meanwhile, the Commission’s internal market chief,
cybersecurity act adopted in 2019, which attempts to encourage Thierry Breton, said in a statement on Wednesday that the new
market players to bolster the security of their connected devices in certification framework could bring EU nations closer together on
order to achieve EU certification. The bloc’s cyber agency, ENISA, 5G security. “Security is at the core of 5G technology roll-out. EU-
has been tasked with coming up with the standards required to wide certification, in combination with other types of measures in
qualify for the certificate. The cybersecurity of 5G networks has long the EU 5G Toolbox, supports our efforts to optimize 5G security and
been on the minds of policy workers in the field, as the EU attempts patch technical vulnerabilities,” he said. “This is why it is important
to establish a common approach with regards to the security of that member states make further progress in implementing
next-generation networks in light of various concerns about the Toolbox.” For their part, Chinese telecoms manufacturer
third-country operators. EU nations must make urgent progress Huawei, who has previously been a cause for concern in some
on mitigating the risks to 5G telecommunications networks posed member states, including most recently Sweden, welcomed this
by certain high-risk suppliers, the European Commission said in week’s news. “A European cybersecurity certification scheme is
a progress report published on Friday (24 July). In January last the backbone for safe and secure 5G operations in Europe,” a
year, the Commission unveiled its 5G Toolbox, in which EU nations spokesperson from the company told EURACTIV. “We believe this
were tasked with assessing the risk profile of telecoms providers, announcement is a positive step as 5G in Europe is critical for the
with a view to applying restrictions for those vendors considered continuation of a resilient Digital Society.”
to be high-risk. A progress report on the plans in July pressed
member states to make ‘urgent progress’ on mitigating the risks
to 5G telecommunications networks posed by certain high-risk
suppliers. The announcement to establish a cyber certification
scheme for 5G comes as the EU attempts to bring member states
closer together on the issue of telecommunications security. In
January, the European Court of Auditors said that EU countries
are ‘progressing at different paces’ in terms of 5G security
protocols introduced by the European Commission as part of
last year’s toolbox. “Member states have developed and started
implementing necessary security measures to mitigate risks,” the
European Court of Auditors’ Paolo Pesce said, speaking on the

Industry Groups Welcome EU Privacy Agreement

GSMA and ETNO called for further action work was still needed. “If regulatory technological and market developments,
to ensure European operators are able to asymmetries linked to the discrepancy including widespread use of VoIP, web-
compete effectively with other players in between e-privacy and GDPR persist, based email and messaging services, and
the digital economy, as European Union European players will face hurdles: this emerging techniques to track users’ online
(EU) member states agreed revised rules is both a matter of competitiveness and behavior. The draft legislation will repeal
on e-privacy rules in the bloc. In a joint ability to develop European data services the existing directive, with the aim to cover
statement, the industry associations inspired by European values,” they added. electronic communications using publicly-
welcomed the agreement, which comes The statement was in response to an available services and networks, and
after four years of regulatory wrangling. agreement by the European Council to metadata (such as information on location
They said the telecoms industry was fully negotiate a mandate on updated e-privacy and time) related to the communication. In
committed to the principle of confidential rules, which aims to define cases in which addition, to ensure full protection of privacy
communications and supported the service providers are allowed to process rights, and promote trusted and secure IoT,
continent’s ambitions to lead the data electronic communications data, or have the rules will cover machine-to-machine
economy. They added the move was an access to data stored on end user devices. data transmitted via a public network. The
important step in the right direction in It follows work led by the Portuguese Portuguese presidency will now begin talks
efforts to align e-privacy with General presidency to update the existing e-privacy with the European Parliament to define the
Data Protection Rules (GDPR), but warned directive from 2002 to cater for new final text.

106 FEB-MAR 2021