Sen Warner: FCC Should Clarify ISP Power to Combat Hacks

Sen Mark Warner (D-VA) has written the Federal Communications Commission and other agencies asking what tools there are and what tools there need to be to combat crippling cyber attacks, and in the case of the FCC, how the Open Internet rules affect what Internet service providers (ISPs) can do about them.

Sen Warner, a former wireless net executive, is co-chair and co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Cybersecurity Caucus. Among the answers he wants is what network management practices ISPs can use to respond to those threats and whether the FCC's Open Internet order's suggestion that ISPs could only take steps to address “traffic that constitutes a denial-of-service attack on specific network infrastructure elements” applied to a recent hack and warranted a response from ISPs. In his letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Sen Warner signaled the FCC needed to clarify what ISPs could do and when. "Under the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Open Internet rules, ISPs cannot prohibit the attachment of 'non-harmful devices' to their networks," he wrote. "It seems entirely reasonable to conclude under the present circumstances, however, that devices with certain insecure attributes could be deemed harmful to the 'network'—whether the ISP’s own network or the networks to which it is connected. While remaining vigilant to ensure that such prohibitions do not serve as a pretext for anticompetitive or exclusionary behavior, I would encourage regulators to provide greater clarity to internet service providers in this area."