FCC Commissioner Starks Speech on Network Security at the Federal Communications Bar Association

Network security is national security.  The risks of having insecure equipment in our networks are alarming. Next week I will be convening stakeholders—including carriers, manufacturers, academics, and trade associations, to start crafting and developing a practical path forward. Specifically, I anticipate digging into what it will take to Find the insecure equipment, Fix the problem, and help Fund the process. Find it. Fix it. Fund it. It could be expensive — recent legislation would allocate $700 million to fund the problem, and one estimate claims the cost could be over a billion dollars, depending on what equipment needs to be replaced, the timing of the replacement and other variables—but we can’t afford to compromise our national security. The entire federal government needs to work together as a team to see that this gets done and gets done right.