FCC Making Cybersecurity a Top Public Safety Focus, Simpson Says
The FCC under new Chairman Tom Wheeler is making cybersecurity a much bigger part of its public safety focus, said David Simpson, new chief of the Public Safety Bureau, during a Tuesday brown-bag lunch with members of the Federal Communications Bar Association. Industry should not fear that the FCC wants to be a cybersecurity cop, Simpson said.
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Simpson, a retired Navy rear admiral, was previously vice director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), where he focused on cyberthreats for the Department of Defense. From 2009 to 2010 he was director for communications and information services for U.S. Forces Iraq in Baghdad.
Simpson said while he was getting started on a job search, Tom Wheeler, who was about to become FCC chairman, called him and asked him to have lunch. “I was sold the minute he talked about the challenges he saw as the head of the FCC as he looked forward and the need to really bring in an understanding of cybersecurity, a sense of cybersecurity, into the commission’s DNA,” Simpson said. “It was so important as we looked to the future of communications that we find that right balance between recognizing the threats that are ahead of us, but not micromanaging industry.”
When Wheeler offered him a job “I jumped at the chance to … continue to work on important issues that had long-term relevance to our nation and to be able to make a difference in that area,” Simpson said. The information and communications technology industry is critical to U.S. economic success, but it’s at risk if the nation can’t balance security, privacy and innovation, he said. “To too aggressively go after any one of those three would really do harm to the market.”
One of his initial concerns was the potential for “internecine” conflicts with other parts of the government already looking hard at cybersecurity, Simpson said. “At the time I absolutely believed that the commission’s role could and should be one that was complementary of the other organizations,” he said. “The issue would really be communicating at the right level with those other organizations as to why they shouldn’t fear a commission that would be more capable on cyber as time goes on. I've been pleasantly surprised with the engagement across the federal space with those that get it, that understand that the FCC’s authorities, that the FCC’s role is not in their lane at all, that the opportunity for complementary activity is there, is the right thing.”
Industry also seems to understand that the FCC is not moving toward more regulation to shore up security, Simpson said. “'He’s going in there and he’s going to lead a march towards cyber regulation,'” Simpson said, commenting on what he feared would be the reaction. “I've got to say it three times. No, no, no. I really very much believe that the best defense for our nation in cyber is an industry-led, vibrant, innovative cyber posture that the FCC -- if it does anything -- just helps [industry] to see threats that it wouldn’t otherwise see on its own and or/see the larger picture.” Simpson said that message “seems to have resonated with industry.”
Cybersecurity will not be a focus of just the Public Safety Bureau, he said. Wheeler wants cybersecurity to “come alive across all of the bureaus and offices,” he said. “Much of what I do to achieve that would not be done just from the bureau.” The heightened focus on cybersecurity is less a “sea change” than an “evolution that recognizes that inflection point … of the greatly increased reliance upon what as we go forward is a converged network,” he said.
Simpson said he has also spent much of his time on 911 reliability and texting to 911. Another focus has been the IP transition, he said. “I felt very strongly that public safety needed to be an element that was considered before the commission authorizes the sunsetting of legacy capabilities, that we've got to ask what does it do to 911, are there failure modes that we didn’t think of before that are introduced by moving from switched to all-IP or from copper to fiber or to wireless,” he said.
Another big area on his watch will be keeping the momentum going on improving public safety, Simpson said. “There have been a lot of good things that the bureau has done over the last couple of years,” he said. “We very much will continue to put a premium on 911, making sure that as the calling patterns of our country shift, that we're doing the right things to ensure that the ecosystem shifts with it,” he said. “The biggest of those items is the shift to IP.” Disaster recovery and emergency preparedness must also be key focuses of the FCC, he said. Simpson said he’s “really excited” about FirstNet and has held regular meetings with FirstNet staff and NTIA officials. “We're trying to achieve something really big here as a nation with FirstNet,” he said. “It’s a really big problem and it takes some time.”(hbuskirk@warren-news.com)