Telecommunications & Technology case study

Cyber resilience and crisis command capability for a multinational connectivity provider

Telecommunications networks are among the most critical infrastructures in the modern economy. Connectivity enables emergency services, financial stability, industrial production, and national continuity.

Resilience Guard GmbH was engaged by a leading European telecommunications operator with multinational presence and culturally diverse operating environments, supporting consumer, enterprise, and government services across multiple jurisdictions.

The organization required a resilience uplift focused not on documentation alone, but on real operational assurance under disruption.

This engagement centered on cyber resilience, network recovery governance, crisis command maturity, and alignment with European essential entity resilience expectations.

Business context: Why telecom resilience is uniquely systemic
Telecom disruption is not isolated. A major outage becomes a national level continuity event.

The operator faced increasing exposure to:
• cyber enabled network interruption
• distributed infrastructure and supplier dependency
• regulatory escalation under NIS2 essential entity expectations
• rising enterprise customer assurance demands
• convergence of IT systems and operational network technology

The board level concern was clear:
How can essential connectivity services remain available under extreme disruption scenarios across all operating regions?

The situation: Fragmented recovery capability across regions
Although the operator had strong technical teams, resilience maturity varied across geographies.

Key challenges included:
• inconsistent recovery objectives between countries
• crisis escalation pathways differing across business units
• limited executive command clarity during cyber disruption
• supplier and cloud dependency risk not formally embedded in continuity governance
• absence of unified resilience maturity measurement across service domains

The organization required a telecom specific resilience model, not a generic BCM approach.

Resilience Guard delivery focus: Network continuity as an executive discipline
Instead of starting with documents, Resilience Guard began with service criticality and operational reality.
The engagement was structured around three telecom specific pillars:

1. Critical connectivity service mapping and prioritization
Resilience Guard worked with network leadership to define which services must never fail, including:

• national backbone connectivity
• emergency and public sector service availability
• enterprise managed network obligations
• high impact customer service restoration priorities

Outputs included:
• tiered service criticality classification
• restoration sequencing logic
• executive visibility of systemic connectivity dependencies
This created the foundation for ISO 22301 aligned continuity priorities, grounded in telecom operations.

2. Cyber disruption readiness for network environments
Telecom resilience must assume cyber disruption as a primary operational threat.

Resilience Guard developed response and recovery models for scenarios such as:
• compromise of network management platforms
• ransomware impact on customer facing service environments
• distributed denial of service escalation affecting backbone stability
• supplier outage events impacting managed infrastructure
• cascading failure across interconnected service layers

Key outcomes:
• cyber events treated as continuity events, not only IT incidents
• recovery strategies integrated with operational service restoration
• improved coordination between cyber response teams and network operations
This aligned resilience readiness with NIS2 expectations for essential service operators.

3. Crisis command structure for multinational outage events
In telecom disruption, decision speed and escalation clarity determine outcomes.

Resilience Guard strengthened crisis governance by establishing:
• unified crisis command structure across countries
• defined executive authority during national level outage events
• consistent escalation triggers linked to service impact thresholds
• communication governance for regulators and critical customers
Executive exercising ensured crisis leadership was operational, not theoretical.

Quantified outcomes delivered
The engagement produced measurable uplift across recovery capability, governance maturity, and audit readines

Recovery time objective improvement
Across core service domains, the operator achieved:

• 30 to 40 percent reduction in recovery time objectives for backbone critical functions
• defined restoration tiers ensuring emergency connectivity is prioritized first
• improved speed of service stabilization under disruption conditions

Crisis escalation efficiency
Following governance implementation:

• escalation ambiguity decreased by more than 50 percent
• executive decision pathways became consistent across regions
• cross country coordination improved during simulated outage conditions

Resilience maturity uplift
A structured telecom resilience maturity model was applied.
Initial maturity variance:

• Level 2 developing in decentralized regions
• Level 4 managed in core infrastructure divisions
Post engagement baseline:
• Level 4 maturity achieved across all critical connectivity domains
• roadmap established toward Level 5 optimized resilience assurance

Regulatory and assurance readiness
The operator strengthened preparedness evidence supporting:

• ISO 22301 aligned continuity governance
• NIS2 essential entity resilience obligations
• enterprise customer assurance expectations
• systemic service continuity reporting at board level

Strategic impact: Resilience as trust infrastructure
The organization now operates with:

• unified continuity priorities across multinational connectivity services
• crisis command maturity aligned with national infrastructure expectations
• cyber disruption recovery governance embedded into executive leadership
• measurable resilience assurance capable of supporting regulatory oversight

Resilience Guard continues to support telecom operators as trusted resilience partners across Europe and international markets.

Explore related sector resilience case studies
Resilience Guard supports critical industries including:

• Energy and terminal infrastructure resilience
• Transportation and aviation continuity programs
• Pharmaceutical supply chain disruption readiness
• Technology and distribution operational resilience

Learn more:
→ Energy case study
→ Transportation case study
→ Pharma case study
→ Technology case study

Frequently asked questions: Telecommunications resilience

How does ISO 22301 apply to telecommunications operators?
ISO 22301 provides the governance standard for continuity management. In telecom environments it ensures critical connectivity services are prioritized, recovery objectives are defined, and resilience capability is auditable across regions.

What does NIS2 require from telecom providers?
NIS2 requires essential entities such as telecom operators to demonstrate preparedness, incident handling, continuity planning, supplier oversight, and evidence based resilience governance.

How is cyber risk integrated into telecom continuity?
Cyber disruption is treated as an operational outage scenario. Effective frameworks integrate cyber response with service restoration sequencing, crisis leadership, and recovery governance.

What measurable outcomes are typical in telecom resilience uplift?
High maturity programs typically deliver:
• 30 to 50 percent faster recovery capability
• stronger crisis escalation clarity
• improved regulatory readiness
• enhanced enterprise and government customer trust

Book your resilience consultation
Resilience Guard GmbH supports telecommunications providers across Switzerland, Europe, and international markets with award winning expertise in:
• ISO 22301 aligned business continuity
• Cyber resilience for essential connectivity services
• Crisis command governance and executive exercising
• NIS2 aligned resilience assurance frameworks
→ Book Your Resilience Consultation