What does the FCC have to do with cyber security?
What does the FCC have to do with cyber security?
Publish Date: 2026-05-08 15:32:00
Source Domain: federalnewsnetwork.com
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. Terry Gerton I want to start by drawing the connection dots between the Federal Communications Commission and cyber security. How would you describe the FCC’s role here?
Zenji Nakazawa Yeah, fantastic question. I get that a lot. So the FCC, which was created back by statute in 1934, really, cybersecurity, if you look at it, is baked into our DNA. Right up front, as far as one of our founding statutory strictures is that we work for the protection of public safety and national security over communications wire and wireless technologies. So from there, that has been sort of like front and center, the heart of our work here, especially in the public safety.]]>
Terry Gerton Are there cyber threats that you are most concerned about these days?
Zenji Nakazawa Well, yes, any cyber threat is not a good threat. So it’s hard to quantify them. But yes, I think really, why are we doing this right now? And it’s not something that we’ve just picked up. This has been something that we have been tracking for years. But what is different about this environment is that the threat environment has matured. We have advanced persistent threats from nation-state actors. We have an increase in ransomware attacks. These are not hypothetical attacks or events. These have real operational impacts that have downstream effects, not only to individual citizens, but to how our public safety mechanisms work, whether it’s the emergency alert system or wireless emergency alerts that we get on our phones, et cetera. So these workshops are really —
Terry Gerton We will come back to the workshops, but I want to keep kind of just exploring the environment for a minute because the communications ecosystem is really varied. You have large national carriers, small providers, local businesses, and you have equipment providers. And they all have very different resources. So when you think about this ecosystem, where do you see the biggest opportunity for the FCC to actually help the communication sector strengthen its cyber posture?
Zenji Nakazawa Yes. So really the threats that we are facing really affects equipment, different technology services, and providers at large, whether it’s telecommunications or broadcast providers. So what we are focusing on really is looking at telecommunication and broadcasts especially. That encompasses a huge spectrum of different services. Cyber attackers do not care, they look for any kind of vulnerability, whether it’s as simple as a router to something more complex, whether a satellite or an undersea cable. So wherever they can find an opening, it’s like ants hunting for honey, they will find it.
Terry Gerton Back to those workshops. You are hosting two in May, May 14th and May 15th. Tell us about what they’re designed to do and who they’re design to help.
Zenji Nakazawa Yeah. So I’m really excited about these two workshops because on two consecutive days, we will be bringing together panels of experts from government and industry to discuss cyberattacks. And really, what we’re looking at is that we realize that the threats that we’re facing are no longer theoretical, that it’s operational. And the small providers, especially small and medium-sized providers, are really at the front lines when the cyber attacks happen. They’re often without the resources that larger, well-heeled firms and providers have. So what this is about essentially is closing that gap very quickly by bringing together the best and the brightest in the same room and sharing that information, sharing awareness of these threats and best practices. Really super excited because we also are going to run through a couple of case studies that will look at the anatomy of a cyber attack and actually a walkthrough of what happens and what a victim can do in those circumstances.
Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Zenji Nakazawa, he’s chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. I would love to hear more about these cases, but I want you to save those for the workshop itself. But thinking about the application of them a little bit more broadly, how are you thinking about collective readiness? All of these networks link together in some way, shape or form. So rather than just individual compliance at each broadcaster or firm, how were you thinking about. Safety and security kind of across the whole communications network?]]>
Zenji Nakazawa Yeah, so that’s a good point. All telecommunications is interlinked and interconnected. But what we’re looking at really are the weakest links because really, as far as preventing a cyber attack, it’s not so much preventing it, but it’s making sure that companies that are attacked, that are they ready and do they have a process in place to address that attack? And also to contain it and to resume continuity of operations, which is very important. So really, when we’re looking at this issue, we look at it broadly and we realize that, for example, ransomware attacks, the likelihood of a business experiencing a ransomware attack is like one in two, according to statistics. And looking at that and the damage that ransomware attacks can cause to businesses, especially small businesses. We want to focus on small and medium-sized businesses, of what they can do to protect themselves and the importance of having a cyber resiliency program in place that they actually are prepared when that situation does happen.
Terry Gerton You talked about these workshops providing best practices and case studies, turning best practices knowledge into operational readiness is actually the hard part. So what are you hoping that participants in the workshop will be able to do afterwards that they can’t do before?
Zenji Nakazawa Yes, so hopefully the intention of these workshops is to not only share the information, but to give them practical tools that they can implement. In some cases, it may seem like basic information, but even basic information is crucial, and it can be detrimental if it’s not followed from basic cyber hygiene to knowledge about social engineering tactics that opponents may be using. All of this is trying to give them tools and every business or every kind of organization is different and may have different needs so they can tailor it to their specific needs. But having this information and awareness of what are the resources that are available to me? Who do I contact? How was this handled in a real case study? I think all of those things are very important. One thing I do want to leave with folks is that one of the important things that we’re pushing is really basic concrete actions like multi-factor authentication. I think of it as you have access to your building, but you have to do a key card, a guard is at the door, but access to you office, you probably also have a key, a separate key. And each level, even to the point that you sit down at your desk and you turn on your computer, there’s an authentication requirement there to make sure that the person who’s accessing that is indeed the person that they purport to be. And I think having those kinds of systems in place, stopgap measures and redundancies is very important. And overall, really, that goes a long way to helping address cyberattacks.
Terry Gerton What would you imagine the follow-up after these workshops will look like? Will you be getting back together with folks who participate and checking on their progress?
Zenji Nakazawa Well, we would make ourselves available. We are an expert agency when it comes to these issues, and we would be more than happy to make connections with other specialists out there to get more particularized assistance to whatever their needs may be. And also just, again, sharing information and having that dialog is really important. So that’s really what it’s about is getting the awareness out there, having that dialog. And then from there acting on that by bringing people together so that they can help one another on these issues.
Terry Gerton So tell us again where folks can find out more about the workshops and register.
Zenji Nakazawa Yes, on our website, go to FCC.gov or you search in Google for Cybersecurity Workshops FCC. You’re bounded to find that.Copyright
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