5G Cyber Security Risk Assessment 2019

At the request of BMVIT and BKA the regulatory authority reassessed the telecoms sector risk assessment from 2018 regarding possible threats in connection with the introduction of 5G technology.

The starting point of the activities was a recommendation from the European Commission, which called on the member states of the European Union to carry out national 5G cybersecurity analyzes and to transmit the results to the European Commission.

Cyber Security Recommendation for 5G Networks

The analysis was carried out by RTR following the proven PPP approach of a cooperation of experts of the Federal Ministries responsible for security issues and telecommunications and Internet industry and was successfully completed in June 2019. This allowed the Federal Chancellery (BKA) to forward the results of the Austrian analysis to the European Commission in good time.

At European level, the results of the national 5G cybersecurity risk assessments of all Member States were aggregated and a Union-wide situation report prepared. The results were summarized in a report published on 09.10.2019.

Report on the Coordinated European 5G Cyber Security Risk Assessment

In a next step, the member states developed a union instrument together with the European Commission, which is suitable for minimizing the identified risks. It is the responsibility of the member states to select and implement those measures from that so-called tool box that are best suited to address national risks. The relevant documents of the NIS cooperation group ("Tool Box") and the European Commission were published on 29.01.2020 and can be found below.