"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "took action to correct course and rescind an unlawful and ineffective prior Declaratory Ruling misconstruing the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).""
"Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) wrote to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr before the FCC's meeting and said: "You have now proposed to reverse this [Declaratory Rulling] after heavy lobbying from the very telecommunications carriers whose networks were breached by Chinese hackers... I am concerned that your move to drop cybersecurity requirements on carriers is part of a pattern of weakness on national security issues.""
"The FCC's press release about the move said, "Since January, the Commission has taken a series of actions to harden communications networks and improve their security posture to enhance the agency's investigative process into communications networks outages that result from cyber incidents.""
"FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez issued a separate statement that said, "Ten months into this Administration, this FCC has still not put forward a single actionable solution to address the growing cybersecurity threat to our communications networks. Not one concrete proposal. Not one protection standard. Not one accountability mechanism.""
The FCC rescinded a January 2025 Declaratory Ruling that interpreted the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), characterizing the prior ruling as unlawful and ineffective. The FCC asserted that the rescission and other actions taken since January will harden communications networks and improve investigative processes for cyber incidents. Critics contend that rescinding the ruling will reduce safety, pointing to lobbying by telecommunications carriers and past breaches by Chinese hackers. Senator Cantwell warned that dropping cybersecurity requirements signals weakness on national security. Commissioner Anna M. Gomez said the FCC has offered no actionable solutions, standards, or accountability mechanisms. Both sides cited the 2024 Salt Typhoon cyberattack as a rationale for stronger cybersecurity, and the original Declaratory Ruling had been enacted in January 2025 in response to Salt Typhoon.
Read at Telecompetitor
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