FCC will push network providers on cybersecurity

The FCC has warned communication companies to take cybersecurity more seriously if they want to avoid new regulations on their networks.

The nation's top telecom regulator will take steps to encourage cybersecurity in the coming months, acting first as a promotor of company-led initiatives instead of a regulator, in keeping with its congressionally defined mission to promote the national defense and public safety, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said. But if that doesn't lead to improvements, the agency is prepared to act.

Under the plan, companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others are being asked to voluntarily shore up their networks and to develop a system for ensuring the work is done on schedule. The FCC is also exploring how to bring companies together to research new technologies to thwart hackers and to study the state of the nation's cybersecurity workforce.

"The challenge is that this private sector-led effort must be more dynamic than traditional regulation and more measurably effective than blindly trusting the market or voluntary best practices to defend our country," Wheeler said during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. "We believe there is a new regulatory paradigm where the commission relies on industry and the market first while preserving other options if that approach is unsuccessful."

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