Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

The Network Security Information Sharing Act (HR 4461) would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to mitigate cybersecurity threats to suppliers of telecommunications services and equipment. Under the bill, the DHS would establish a program office to share information with trusted participants in the telecommunications industry about efforts by adversaries to embed malicious software into communications equipment purchased by American companies.

With the first year of the 116th Congress coming to a close, House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) highlighted the Subcommittee’s work to restore network neutrality, combat the robocall epidemic, secure America’s telecommunications supply chain, fix faulty broadband maps, and more. The Subcommittee held 12 hearings, three markups, and passed 11 bills in 2019. Accomplishments listed include:

US technology companies have rebuffed a Trump administration request that they pledge to stop sourcing supplies from some Chinese companies, amid concerns that such a policy could break competition laws. The state department asked telecoms carriers and chipmakers to sign up to a set of principles which would have in effect shut out Huawei, and possibly others, according to three people briefed on the proposals.

The global internet has accelerated economic growth in many countries, and online-offline movements like #BlackLivesMatter, the Umbrella Movement, #MeToo, and #MarchForOurLives underscore social media’s potential to affect real change in the world.

The trade war between China and the US has centered largely on escalating tariffs. But in many rural communities, the focus has shifted to the security of networks for which Chinese giants Huawei and ZTE have long provided equipment. As the 5G future approaches, the US is pushing small carriers to rip out and replace whatever parts of their infrastructure come from China, no matter the cost.

Huawei is suing the Federal Communications Commission for choking off its sales in the United States, the latest in the besieged company’s widening efforts to hit back at regulators and critics across the globe. The FCC voted in November to bar American telecommunications companies from using federal subsidies to buy equipment from Huawei and another Chinese supplier, ZTE. Washington considers both firms to be national security risks. “The FCC claims that Huawei is a security threat.

In 2016, the US Census Bureau faced a pivotal choice in its plan to digitize the nation’s once-a-decade population count: build a system for collecting and processing data in-house, or buy one from an outside contractor. The bureau chose Pegasystems Inc, reasoning that outsourcing would be cheaper and more effective. Three years later, the project faces serious reliability and security problems. And its projected cost has doubled to $167 million — about $40 million more than the bureau’s 2016 cost projection for building the site in-house.

Tech has been given surprisingly little airtime during the 2020 Democratic primaries. It has rarely come up on the debate stage. While candidates such as Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Andrew Yang, and Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have made tech-related issues part of their platforms, the matter is often eclipsed by other political hot topics, including health care and taxes.

European Union communications ministers will gather in Brussels on Dec 3 to discuss how to safeguard emerging fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks. Their decisions could have lasting impacts on European countries’ ability to protect their people’s privacy, and ultimately, safeguard their freedoms. It’s critical that European countries not give control of their critical infrastructure to Chinese tech giants like Huawei, or ZTE. But securing 5G networks means more than preventing any one company from building them.

Apparently, Huawei has decided to fight a Federal Communications Commission decision that further curtails its business with some of its few remaining customers in the US, as it continues to advocate for itself in an escalating battle with Washington. The company is preparing a lawsuit that would challenge the decision—part of a broad recent effort by Huawei of more forcefully challenging US efforts to restrict its business.