The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
FTC/DOJ
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice issued a policy statement on the sharing of cyber-security information that makes clear that properly designed cyber threat information sharing is not likely to raise antitrust concerns and can help secure the nation’s networks of information and resources. The policy statement provides the agencies’ analytical framework for information sharing among private entities and is designed to reduce uncertainty for those who want to share ways to prevent and combat cyberattacks. The two agencies recognized that the sharing of cyber threat information has the potential to improve the security, availability, integrity, and efficiency of the nation’s information systems. The policy statement also emphasizes that the legitimate sharing of cyber threat information is very different from the sharing of competitively sensitive information such as current or future prices and output or business plans, which may raise antitrust concerns. Cyber threat information is typically technical in nature and covers a limited type of information and disseminating that information appears unlikely to raise competitive concerns.
FCC
The FCC announced the initial agenda and session participant information for its April 17 and 18, 2014, workshop on “Public Safety Imperatives for All-IP Networks.” The workshop will explore the impact of the technology transition on key public safety, emergency response, and national security functions. The first day will feature three public sessions that can be viewed over the Internet at http://www.fcc.gov/live. The FCC will also be accepting questions on issues presented during the public session discussions via email at livequestions@fcc.gov and Twitter by using “#TechTransitions” hashtag. To facilitate ongoing dialogue during and after the workshop, the FCC will also host an online discussion forum that can be accessed through the FCC event page at http://www.fcc.gov/events/technology-transitions-and-public-safety beginning April 17, 2014.
The first session will discuss communications requirements for public safety incident response in an all-IP-based infrastructure. Session participants will address incident scenarios that involve multiple 911 communications, dispatch and mutual aid, coordination of multifunctional and multi-jurisdictional response, and issuance of public alerts and warnings. The second session will examine the challenges that disasters and emergencies bring to an all-IP-based infrastructure and to the operational procedures for each stakeholder. Session participants will discuss IP-based capabilities that can assist with disaster response and life-saving activities, as well as how the transition to IP infrastructure affects restoration of communications services. The third session will examine the challenges that cyber exploits pose for public safety communications and operations. Session participants will be presented with various scenarios positing different types of cyber exploits that could disrupt emergency communications and operations in an all-IP environment.
The second day’s session is for federal interagency participants only and will discuss the impact of the transition on Federal programs and systems, including readiness, reliability, and remediation. A public synopsis of the session will be made available after the event.
