July 15, 2010

The Head of Media and Telecommunications Parliamentary Committee, MP Hassan Fadlallah met, in his office at the parliament this week, with Dr. Imad Hoballah, acting Chairman and CEO of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and Mr. Patrick Eid, Board Member and Head of Market and Competition Unit to discuss the current situation of the telecommunications sector in Lebanon and the damages that could have potentially incurred due to the recent incidents.

Dr. Hoballah and Mr. Eid emphasized serious negative impact on the telecommunications sector at the operational and technical levels and proposed several ways to permanently solve this issue against the infiltration. They also highlighted the operators’ responsibility to undertake all necessary measures against security breaches and compromises, and stressed the urgency of implementing strict and immediate actions in several fields including work, equipment and external relations that could be all vulnerable to any future network compromise.

In that regard, the TRA issued guidelines titled “Security Requirements for the Telecom Networks in Lebanon” focusing on Mobile networks security. The guidelines developed by the TRA require auditing the existing MIC1 and MIC2 networks in order to isolate and clear any existing loopholes/backdoors or security breaches. The guidelines also provide immediate recommendations and actions to be implemented by both network managers to decrease the risks of potential security breaches and violations, and the risk of abuse and misuse of users and subscribers confidential information.

Finally, this guidelines propose new security and control policies to be applied by all telecom operators in Lebanon including the Ministry of telecommunications through Ogero, the two mobile companies (MIC1 and MIC2), Internet and Data service providers.