The GSMA, an industry organization representing the interests of global mobile network operators, has announced that major vendors ZTE, Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia have passed an independent security audit of product development and lifecycle management processes and intend to submit a network kit for evaluation in the second test round. This testing system is called the Network Equipment Security Scheme (NESAS) and claims to have been designed to increase industry confidence in telecommunications network equipment while promoting a more coordinated mobile market. NESAS was jointly established by GSMA and 3GPP. NESAS provides an industry-wide security assurance framework to improve the level of security throughout the mobile industry. The scheme defines security requirements and an assessment system for secure product development and product life cycle processes, and uses 3GPP-defined security test cases to assess the security of network equipment. The audits are conducted by world-class security auditing companies on…