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Following one of the largest telecommunications hacks in US history, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to impose strict standards on telecom companies’ cybersecurity measures. The agency is scheduled to vote Thursday to roll back those requirements, arguing that they were an unnecessary overreach of its authority.
associated with China The Salt Typhoon hack was revealed last year Affected carriers include AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Lumen Technologies, The Wall Street Journal I mentioned. The case was so bad that American officials Urging consumers in late 2024 To communicate only through encrypted applications, for fear that adversaries may be lurking in their carrier networks.
In response, the FCC, led by Democratic Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, issued an interpretive ruling imposing stronger security requirements on telecommunications providers, and issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) inviting public comment on how telecommunications providers should secure their systems. Now, the FCC, under Republican Chairman Brendan Carr, is seeking to undo those actions amid a broader deregulation push.
The original ruling misinterpreted the FCC’s authority and was rushed into effect just before the change of administration Fact sheet The order description says the rule is repealed. Moreover, the report argues that its “vague and amorphous standard threatens to impose costly new burdens on many providers that are either irrelevant to the potential threats they face, or that are redundant because these providers may already be using sufficient cybersecurity practices to reasonably reduce the risk of successful exploits by more sophisticated threat actors.” Communications industry associations They demanded that the procedures be cancelledSaying the FCC has gone too far, he noted that providers have already taken steps since the hack to harden their networks, and will continue to do so voluntarily.
“We will reverse the only meaningful effort this agency has made in response to this breach.”
But Democratic Commissioner Ana Gomez isn’t convinced that’s enough. She said the Salt Typhoon hack “was more importantly a wake-up call, and showed us how little incentives exist to force companies to address the vulnerabilities that allowed this attack to occur.” Edge In an interview. The Biden administration’s White House national security adviser said at the time that companies lacked some basic cybersecurity protections Contribute to the breakthrough. “When I received this draft order, it was very disappointing because we will be reversing the only meaningful effort this agency has made in response to this hack,” Gomez said.
The vote comes at the same time US cyber defenses are already under pressureAmid the drain on the federal workforce and ongoing political attacks against the federal government’s central cyber coordinator. Even if the post-Hurricane Salt actions are rescinded, Gomez said she hopes the FCC will continue to cooperate with other agencies to address national security issues, but she fears the Trump administration “will weaken our cyber defenses and our cyber-focused agencies. I believe we need a comprehensive strategy in order to address these vulnerabilities.”
Carr drafted the rescission order As a course correction. But Gomez worries he’s taking away important tools and replacing them with nothing. “I fear that Americans will become less safe since the day this hack was discovered just over a year ago,” she said. “Our adversaries will see this as an invitation, and will continue to urge our networks.”