A total of 279 incidents with significant impact affected the security and integrity of local electronic communications networks and services in 2016, according to a report from the Communications Authority ANCOM.

These incidents affected a total of over 12 million connections, two times more than in 2015.

Most connections affected by the significant incidents reported to ANCOM in 2016 were mobile telephony connections - over 5.6 million, followed by mobile Internet services – more than 5 million, fixed telephony – some 570,000, and fixed Internet – around 470,000. On the other hand, the audiovisual program re-transmission connections were the least affected – some 450,000.

According to data reported by communication services suppliers to ANCOM last year, an incident with significant impact on the security and integrity of electronic communications networks and services affected an average of 47,859 connections. This is twice more than in 2015, when an average of 22,773 connections were affected by one incident. Such an incident lasted an average of approximately 7.5 hours, while the total duration of security incidents reported for 2016 is 1,347 hours.

Most security incidents occurred in Bucharest and Ilfov, followed by the counties of Constanta, Teleorman and Calarasi.

When it comes to what caused these incidents, 7% were the result of human errors, for example the wrong configuration and use of equipment, and natural phenomena such as heavy snowfalls and storms. Meanwhile, 27% of the incidents were caused by system errors (software and hardware), while most of the incidents (66%) were determined by external factors such as power failures or the accidental cutting of the optical fiber.

ANCOM’s report is based on information provided by suppliers.

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Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com