Trump Administration Finalizes 5G Security Strategy Implementation
President Donald Trump’s administration released its final 5G security strategy implementation plan Friday, which observers believe may have some influence despite Trump’s imminent exit. The U.S., “along with like-minded countries will lead global development, deployment, and management of secure and reliable 5G infrastructure,” the plan said. NTIA, which published the strategy, released a much shorter version in March for feedback (see 2003250047).
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NTIA notified the FCC, Congress and GAO it will cost an estimated $13.4 billion to clear the 3.45-3.55 GHz band for 5G. The Navy faces the highest costs to migrate off 3.5 GHz, at more than $12 billion, NTIA reported. The estimate is more than $772 million for Air Force relocation and $245 million for the Army. The auction is expected to start in December (see 2012210055).
“5G wireless technology will be transformational,” which means “the stakes for securing this new technology could not be higher,” said National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. The 5G security strategy “will help to provide the American people with secure, reliable, and trustworthy” infrastructure. Work to enhance network security “will require a range of efforts from across” the federal government and “close collaboration with our international and industry partners,” O’Brien said. The FCC didn’t comment.
The plan calls for giving much of the implementation leadership to agencies other than the FCC, which would instead play a supporting role. Agencies leading the work would include the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, NTIA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The strategy calls for a new R&D effort “to develop advanced communications and networking capabilities to achieve security, resilience, safety, privacy, and coverage of 5G and beyond at an affordable cost.” Additional work should be aimed at “identifying and assessing risks and vulnerabilities to 5G infrastructure, building on existing capabilities in assessing and managing supply chain risk,” the report said. Stakeholders must develop criteria “for trusted suppliers and the application of a vendor supply chain risk management template to enable security-conscious acquisition decision-making,” the plan said. It stressed the importance of international outreach and standards development, including “strengthening and expanding United States leadership in international standards bodies and voluntary consensus-based standards organizations.”
“This is more of a culmination of the work done” over the course of the Trump administration “pulled together into one document at the end of this administration than a midnight push for a policy change,” said American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Shane Tews in an interview. “It reads more process driven than partisan.” She “would think the incoming administration will want to review the key points for consideration as they develop their own policy positions.” Network security will likely be a priority under President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration, Tews predicted.
The Telecommunications Industry Association, which gave feedback on the initial 5G security strategy, is glad the Trump administration cited “the importance of public-private partnerships” as part of the plan, said Vice President-Government Affairs Melissa Newman: NTIA’s “call to Congress to expand tax credits and incentives for [information and communications tech] standards development is important and should be a priority for the 117th Congress.”