The threat landscape has changed dramatically since the NIS Directive came into play in 2016, and the GSMA today urged the European Commission to update and expand the directive to meet current risks and future challenges to ensure 5G technology is secure.
As the trade body for the mobile industry, the GSMA runs a Fraud and Security working group for network operators and has a seat on the EU Stakeholder Cyber Certification Group.
Several of the largest telecoms companies now require vendors test the security of their product designs through the GSMA’s new NESAS certification scheme.
With this holistic view of threats and vulnerabilities, the GSMA strongly recommends the Commission to address the shortcomings and persisting inefficiencies in the NIS Directive by:
- Including software and hardware providers in the scope to ensure robust end-to-end security.
- Reducing red tape and fragmentation by streamlining processes, security requirements and incident notifications obligations.
- Improving harmonisation and consistency for providers of Electronic Communications Services by closely aligning the NIS Directive with other legal instruments (the Cybersecurity Act, the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) and the European Critical Infrastructure (ECI) Directive).
The GSMA urges the Commission to prioritise the above recommendations, thus helping to achieve greater digital resilience and security of European networks, which are critical for delivering a Gigabit Society.
For more information, please contact:
Tomas Jakimavicius
Senior Director, Public Policy, Europe, GSMA
Tomas Jakimavicius is a Public Policy Director for the European region at the GSMA. He is working on government and regulatory affairs, where he focuses on the EU telecoms & digital regulatory and policy developments that affect mobile communications industry. In his role, he creates public affairs strategies for the GSMA membership, as well as facilitates the association members when executing advocacy campaigns geared toward their public policy and business goals.
Prior to joining the GSMA, Tomas has served as a diplomat with the Lithuanian Permanent Representation to the EU, where he represented Lithuania at the EU Council as the Telecoms and Digital Affairs Attaché in 2010-2014. He was also a Chairman of the EU Council’s ‘Telecommunications and Information Society’ Working Group during the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, in the second half of 2013.
Prior to this role, he served at the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania, where he was a Chief Policy Expert at the ICT Policy department in 2009-2010.
Earlier in his career, Tomas held advisory and consultancy positions in the private IT and trade business sector companies.
Tomas received a Masters of Leadership with an International Relations concentration from Boston University, Mass. (US), a Masters of Enterprise Information systems from University of Westminster, London (UK) and a Bachelors of Informatics from the Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania.