O2

(asked on 10th December 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect on the UK economy of the O2 data failure of 6 December 2018.


Answered by
Margot James Portrait
Margot James
This question was answered on 13th December 2018

We work closely with the telecoms sector on matters of resilience and security through the industry led Electronic Communications Resilience and Response Group. Furthermore, the Communication Act 2003 (section 105A) requires telecoms operators to have appropriate measures in place to manage risks to the security (covering confidentiality, integrity and availability) of networks and services. Telecoms operators are also required to notify Ofcom of security and resilience issues (including service outages) which have a ‘significant impact on the operation of a network or service’ (section 105B Communications Act 2003).

Ofcom reports annually on the number and scale of security incidents, including impacts (ie numbers of customers affected) through their Connected Nations report.

Compensation arrangements linked to a service incident are a matter for the company but Ofcom will be discussing the company’s plans with them.

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