CSRIC Gets Updates on 6G and AI Threats, Preparing Reports for 2025 and 2026
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council’s working groups are making progress toward providing the agency with reports on AI security concerns, ensuring access to 911 as networks evolve and offering recommendations for 6G security, said the group leads during Wednesday’s CSRIC meeting. The groups are on pace to deliver several reports in 2025 and 2026, with the first -- on AI, machine learning and the specific security concerns they bring to communications networks -- due in March. “We believe this is a complex task,” said working group co-Chair Vijay Gurbani, Vail Systems' chief data scientist.
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The complexities of studying AI and security pertaining to communications networks stem from the broad range of communications systems and types of AI, Gurbani said. “The impact of a linear regression model that fails to predict whether a customer called the contact center to pay a bill is much less than the impact of the model used to create [a] synthetic voice of a celebrity or a politician for malicious purposes,” he said. Telecom networks are insulated from the types of attacks commonly used against AI to a certain extent because their AI systems use the companies’ privately controlled data and often aren’t on the public internet, Gurbani said.
The Harnessing AI/Machine Learning to Ensure the Security, Reliability and Integrity of the Nation’s Communications Working Group has divided the problem into 13 technology areas, with categories such as wireline networks, 5G open-source software and contact center operations. For each area, the working group is focusing on possible threats and mitigation, Gurbani said.
The Preparing for 6G Security and Reliability Working Group aims to deliver a report in December 2025 on potential risks and recommendations for mitigation, said co-Chair Brian Daly, AT&T assistant vice president-wireless technology and standards. 6G “really hasn't been fully defined yet, so we're looking into the future, looking at what's emerging as 6G evolves and trying to identify those security and reliability risks that would be unique to this emerging ecosystem,” said Daly. 6G networks are at least seven years from deployment but moving at “a brisk pace."
Early insights into the work on 6G from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project suggest that cellular networks will grow more complex and secure as they progress, Daly said. Cloud deployments will be more important in 6G, so security for those network elements should be emphasized, he added. 6G should also provide better security against quantum computing tech, which poses a threat to “classic” cryptography. 6G will also be dependent on satellite networks for positioning and timing, so GPS security and alternatives are also of particular concern, Daly said.
The Ensuring Consumer Access to 911 on All Available Networks as Technology Evolves Working Group is aiming to deliver a report by June on recommendations for connecting stalled 911 calls through alternative networks. In addition, it will have a report by March 2026 about preventing adverse impacts to public safety answering points and NG911 from calls made on alternative networks, according to co-Chair Brandon Abley, chief technology officer at the National Emergency Number Association. The group plans to build on work from previous CSRICs, Abley said. Work is “proceeding at a good clip.”
The CSRIC’s work “supports the backbone” of government efforts to make networks more resilient and respond to emergencies in the face of recent “cyber adversarial activity,” said Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Assistant Director Billy Bob Brown at the close of Wednesday’s meeting. “Prosperity is impossible if there’s no security available.”