Resilience
BIS is the lead Government Department for the telecommunications sector, which is part of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure. This infrastructure refers to the essential facilities, systems, sites and networks on which daily life depends. BIS leads on security and resilience issues for telecommunications (lead policy responsibility for any other telecoms issues lies with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport).
BIS works closely with the telecommunications industry to disseminate best practice and further enhance the sector’s resilience. Telecommunications is an inherently resilient sector, partly due to the competitive nature of the sector but also because of historic investment in the infrastructure and the range of alternative systems which exist (e.g. land line, mobile, internet). In addition, the industry has invested in infrastructure to avoid any large single points of failure.
The Electronic Communications – Resilience and Response Group (EC-RRG) has representatives from all of the major telecoms providers as well as relevant Government Departments and leads on maintaining resilience within the telecoms sub-sector. The EC-RRG manages the Telecoms Emergency Plan, which sets out management processes for handling emergencies, priority customers and priority services. BIS provides the Secretariat for the EC-RRG. The group focuses on developing and disseminating best practice in telecommunications resilience. The Group also focuses upon developing and testing the most appropriate processes to respond to a range of different risks.
The EC-RRG has developed a system for dealing with emergencies known as the National Emergency Alert for Telecoms or NEAT. NEAT is a conference call convened when telecoms providers become aware of a problem or potential problem affecting the normal flow of telecommunications. All key UK telecoms companies, including fixed, mobile and other service providers, plus BIS and other relevant Government Departments are represented on the call.
The NEAT forum is used to ascertain the severity of a problem, and – if necessary – coordinate an effective pan-industry response to restore normal service within the affected area as soon as possible. It can be activated by either industry or Government and will take place as soon as possible from when the alarm has been raised, or at the most within an hour of the alert. BIS is represented at NEAT, normally by the telecoms resilience policy team. It will remain active until the situation is under control.
Contact: cybersecurity@bis.gsi.gov.uk
