FCC Has Limited but Important Role to Play on Cybersecurity: Expert
The FCC has an important but still limited role to play in cybersecurity, said Joshua Levine, a research fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. The agency is rightly attempting to crack down on the authorization and use of unsecure telecom equipment in the U.S., including through its recent "bad labs" order (see 2505220056), he said. While the commission is well positioned to oversee the security of devices and the supply chain, he argued that it probably shouldn’t serve as the lead agency on cybersecurity.
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Levine said the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, IEEE and the International Organization for Standardization “have done a really good job and have been leaders in setting standards for industry to follow." Those organizations understand the “facts on the ground,” the types of attacks and the changing nature of attack surfaces.
The U.S. approach to cybersecurity should be as “nimble” as possible, rather than providing “one hard-and-fast rule,” Levine said. It's seeing “more costly cyberattacks than there have been, ever, and that has been an ongoing, increasing trend.”
On equipment labs, the FCC wants to create “kind of two separate lanes” for providers, Levine said. One is for gear manufacturers from the U.S. and allied nations that share U.S. “values,” he said. A second is for those affiliated with China, “who are interested in using their commercial products and technology products to gain national security or geopolitical competitive advantages.”
Manufacturing, health care, education, national security and defense and preparedness “are increasingly connected and online,” Levine said. “Caring about where these technologies are coming from … is vital for proper cybersecurity, but frankly, also our economic and national security.”