The long and winding road to a functional and secure Italian 5G network is riddled with gigantic potholes. Namely: the absence of a delegated oversight authority and pool of expert, the time-dilating pandemic, and awkward government interventionism mixed with a lack of an absolutely clear stance on Chinese 5G tech.
An Incites report placed Italy at the 20th place in Europe for 5G readiness. It noted that although the infrastructural trials are well underway, “shortcomings in other impactful sectors” are hindering the next-gen network’s readiness.
Surely, the process was slowed down by the ruling parties’ differing views on geopolitical alignment, but prime minister Giuseppe Conte’s government seems to have finally picked the US’ side in its “tech Cold War” with China.
Washington has been increasingly limiting the adoption of Chinese hardware and software as it accuses Beijing of using its widely exported tech for espionage purposes, something the latter denies.
An Italian security watchdog stopped short of proposing the same measures as the Americans, but it highlighted the undeniable security risks associated with Chinese state influence over private firms.
Last month, ministers have intervened in telecoms companies’ choice of equipment, barring them from buying Chinese tech from State-linked firms Huawei and ZTE, which were extensively employed in the building of Italy’s 4G network.
They also published security guidelines for the construction of 5G networks, which essentially makes it extremely hard for non-European tech companies (and especially Chinese ones) to clear the security threshold for adoption. However, the specialised authority meant to monitor these matters is nowhere to be seen.
It was only on Monday, August 3rd, that the government issued a call for 70 experts to set up a delegated authority whose purpose will be that of enforcing the “cyber perimeter,” aka Italy’s next-gen digital defence infrastructure.
This team, which will work from soon-to-be-constructed centres, would have direct access to 5G components and perform frequent security checks.
However, given Italy’s famously slow bureaucracy, it is unlikely this system will be fully operational before late 2020 or even early 2021. Furthermore, we must also consider the lack of relative regulations, which are also under development.
Thus, Italy’s cyber defence measures could be coming online too late in the game – and someone could take advantage of this.
