Protection of underground electronic communications infrastructure : the use of automated information system for damage prevention against civil work

Information exchange on the Internet is possible thanks to a physical infrastructure composed of network equipment and cables, such as fibre optics. The majority of these cables are usually laid underground, for esthetic reasons and to improve their security. In the last years, ENISA has noticed a large amount of Internet outages due to cable cuts. The source cause can be linked either to malicious actions or to accidental (unvoluntary) events. Thus, a fair amount of unvoluntary disruption can be attributed to underground excavation performed during a civil work, due to a lack of information regarding the presence of underground cables at the dig site. Certain Member States (MS) of the European Union - namely Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom - have developed specific tools to prevent the disruption of underground electronic communication infrastructure. These tools, whose use can be either mandatory or voluntary, foster the collaboration between infrastructure owners and excavators: infrastructure owners can declare their underground assets and share the information with the excavator before any planned civil work. This document analyses existing initiatives deployed by selected MS. Information collected through a survey is analysed to understand the choices made for the development and management of such tools, the technical implementation, the operational usage of the tool, its financing, and security aspects linked to the misuse of information. In particular, confidentiality is a key parameter that need to be tackled before launching any new initiative. The document then explores the advantages of an automated information exchange tool in the protection of underground infrastructure. It summarizes the principle results found during the survey and explores possible improvement and future developments. This document aims to provide recommendations to Member States (MS) that wish to protect their underground electronic communications infrastructure against disruption due to civil works. This document shall help MS to assess their need to deploy an automated information system for damage prevention, and eventually assist them in the development of such tool through the following recommendations: - MS should analyse the reasons behind cable cuts - MS should evaluate the benefits of an automated information exchange tool to protect underground infrastructure - MS developing an automated information exchange tool should rely on existing tools and experience - All stakeholders need to collaborate to define the principles of the automated information exchange tool to protect underground assets - MS should promote the use of their automated information exchange tool to protect their underground infrastructure - MS should evaluate the security policy for operating and managing their automated information exchange tool - MS should evaluate the sustainability of their automated information exchange tool