FCC Shouldn't Compete With DHS for Cybersecurity Role, AEI Fellow Says

The FCC should allow the Department of Homeland Security to be the lead agency on cybersecurity, said Shane Tews, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, in a Thursday blog post. The FCC Public Safety Bureau issued a white paper last week, before former Chairman Tom Wheeler's resignation, saying the commission can’t rely on organic market incentives alone to reduce cyber risk within the communications sector. The federal government needs to assert “appropriate” regulatory oversight over ISPs’ cybersecurity practices in the absence of clear market incentives to drive improvements, the white paper said (see 1701180082). Tews and others said they don't believe new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will consider making the paper's proposals commission policy (see 1701250077). Congress would do well to instead consider House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul's, R-Texas, planned DHS Reform and Improvement Act as the “best way for the government to facilitate information sharing in this way,” Tews said. McCaul said this month he planned to soon reintroduce the bill, which would reorganize DHS' National Protection and Programs Directorate as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency in a bid to elevate DHS' cybersecurity focus (see 1701050073). Pai has said other agencies have better legal standing and expertise to handle cybersecurity issues than the FCC, and the commission should only be a consulting agency, Tews said. “Establishing a systematic, reliable reporting process and a trusted repository for information-sharing across industries and the government would be a step in the right direction,” she said. “Now is the time to embrace the importance of the internet for our digital economy and to acknowledge the risks that come with the rewards.”