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The recent progress on the tower number field sieve (TNFS) method reduce the complexity of the discrete logarithm problem (DLP) in finite extensions Fqk of composite degree and this has a major impact on the selection of pairing-friendly elliptic curve parameters. In this paper we revise the criteria for selecting pairing-friendly elliptic curves in order to surpass the TNFS attacks in finite extensions of composite embedding degree. We also update the criteria for selecting suitable elliptic curves of prime embedding degree in order to meet today’s security requirements.