Britain has re-amended a few of the cybersecurity guidelines for the telecom operators rendering services in the region. And the regulations seem to be highly stringent in the world- hmmm, at least of paper.
National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) a cyber arm of GCHQ, has devised Telecommunication Security Act in November 2021. Now, it has made some amendments that would come into effect from October this year and are as follows-
· It is the duty of the telecom services provider to track down threats on equipment on the edge.
· Scientific framework should be deployed on who is going to make changes to the network
· Any malicious signals that could cause disruption to the entire network should be detected and neutralized proactively.
· Companies should strive to make their networks risk free
· There should be an accountability to business processes that support security
All providers should start evaluating their security norms in align with the newly planned ones and should surely upgrade their resilience by March 2024
UK’s Ofcom, aka the Office of Communications, will have the authority to inspect telecom networks and their systems and will have the right to intervene and impose a penalty of £100,000 per day on those who do not follow the latest regulations.
Yet, a draft copy of the recently amended rules needs to be approved in the parliament, and those willing to adopt the guidelines will be provided with some smart incentives.
NOTE- A public response to the new telecom security act amendments made by the government was published on August 30th,2022 and the report will surely give us a feeling that Britain seems to be serious about providing a gigabit capable broadband, so that almost 86% of the population will have 5G signal access by the year 2027.
