CORRUPTION: Industry Controls FCC Cyber Security Panel That Is Meant to Regulate Them

This report from Project On Government Oversight (POGO) found that a federal advisory panel tasked with making policy recommendations to OUR Federal Communication COmmission is stacked with corporate insiders.  This is the definition of corruption: industry members writing the rules to benefit themselves & their rich friends.

After high-tech phone network outages hit major U.S. cities in 1991, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chartered an advisory group to help the agency troubleshoot emerging technology issues. Yet a recent Project On Government Oversight investigation found that instead of helping solve problems, this industry-dominated group has at times been a barrier to strengthening the security of America’s communications.

The council’s current charter calls for a mixture of representatives from the government, non-profit consumer advocates, and the private sector to “balance the expertise and viewpoints” on technical topics.  The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that memberships of advisory committees “be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the advisory committee”...

POGO’s analysis found that the council....is dominated by industry influences and falling short of legal requirements....more than half of its members represented private sector interests, either as a direct employee of a for-profit company or via affiliation with an industry trade group....

This corruption is a barrier to strengthening the security of America’s communications.

The skewed membership of the council has given industry undue influence on the FCC policy-making process.... While the council makes it reports in an advisory capacity and the FCC must take further action to create new regulations...the council’s reports and recommendations held heavy sway within the agency despite the obvious conflicts of interest inherent in their production.

The reports and recommendations have been pointedly in the direction of agency inaction, which aligns with larger industry lobbying efforts against stronger digital security requirements.  This setup created a vicious cycle in terms of who took part in the process.

This corruption is putting each of us at risk but allowing the industry to ignore security concerns with hackers being able to SEE OUR LOCATIONS.

The leadership....was heavily skewed towards industry, with more than 80 percent....industry representatives.  These chairs and co-chairs....steer the direction of the working groups....turned to industry for recommendations....

....industry influence within the council’s process was used to delay meaningful action on serious security vulnerabilities in part of America’s cellular infrastructure....that can allow hackers to track people’s locations via their mobile devices and intercept calls or texts.

Emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act, show that the industry-aligned leaders of one of the council’s working groups—theoretically convened to help figure out how to solve the problem—instead delayed the process and ignored input from Department of Homeland Security experts in the working group.

That is literally the definition of corruption folks.  Also, another reminder: Ajit Pai is garbage.

The FCC’s founding statute charges it with, among other things, promoting “safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communication.” Despite that mandate, and the increasing risks to America’s communications infrastructure, the commission has become even less engaged on cybersecurity issues under the current chairman, Ajit Pai.

Fortunately we have Democrats fighting for us everyday:

 

 

Source: https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2019/06/industry-influence-on-an-fcc-advisory-panel/

Date: 
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Tags: 
Regulations