Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

In April 2024, AT&T learned that customer data was illegally downloaded from our workspace on a third-party cloud platform.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has shared with her fellow commissioners draft final rules that, if adopted, would strengthen the security of the nation’s public alert and warning systems—the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts—against emerging cybersecurity threats. The Emergency Alert System delivers warnings to the public thorough radio and television. Wireless Emergency Alerts deliver warnings to consumers’ wireless phones.

People expect unfettered and affordable access to communication services—and a media system that provides accurate news and information. A significant and bipartisan majority of Americans want to make sure their communications and internet activity are private, and do not want to see discrimination or intentionally false information online. Free Press Action's policy platform is a guide for candidates and policymakers seeking to uphold their constituents’ rights to connect and communicate and is supported by our members across the country, including in every state and territory.

In 2023, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called for a new Learn Without Limits Initiative spearheaded by the FCC. Initially, this meant expanding E-Rate––a Universal Service Fund program that helps to make telecommunications services more affordable for schools and libraries––funding to support Wi-Fi on school buses and Wi-Fi hotspots at libraries, school libraries, and schools for patrons or students in need.

The US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has launched a collaborative project to adapt NIST’s digital identity guidelines to support public benefits programs, such as those designed to help beneficiaries pay for food, housing, medical, and other basic living expenses.

Rep Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) introduced the Saving Americans' Valuable Earnings on the National Affordable Connectivity Program (SAVE on ACP) Act to strengthen the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), complete the equipment removal of China-based companies Huawei and ZTE, and allow the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reauction certain spectrum licenses to create more responsive networks for consumers. Rep Gallego's SAVE on ACP Act would:

The same generative artificial intelligence tools that are supercharging the work of both skilled and novice coders can also produce flawed, poten

The Federal Communications Commission proposed action to help protect America’s communications networks against cyberattacks by improving internet routing security. The proposal would require broadband providers to create confidential reports on the steps they have taken, and plan to undertake, to mitigate vulnerabilities in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the technical protocol used to route information across the internet. The nation’s largest broadband providers would also be required to file specific public data on a quarterly basis demonstrating their BGP risk mitigation progress.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a three-year, $200 million Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program.  This program will allow the FCC to obtain actionable data about which cybersecurity services and equipment would best help K-12 schools and libraries address the growing cyber threats and attacks against their broadband networks. From this program, the FCC aims to learn how to improve school and library defenses against sophisticated ransomware and cyberattacks that put students at risk and impede their learning.