TELECOM GROUP URGES HILL ACTION ON INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION

Protecting communications during critical infrastructure threats such as blackouts, hurricanes and terror attacks requires dedicated spectrum and freedom from cybersecurity mandates, a coalition of trade groups told Congress last week. The United Telecom Council (UTC) and other members of the Critical Infrastructure Communications Coalition (CICC) wrote members of 3 key House committees last week, urging promotion and protection of private telecom services used by the electric, gas, water, oil and railroad industries.

These private telecom networks in emergencies offer performance that “commercial communications providers simply cannot provide reliably,” CICC wrote to all members of the House Commerce, Govt. Reform and Select Homeland Security committees: “Therefore, we strongly believe that federal policies must promote such internal telecommunications systems, including the dedication of an appropriate portion of radio spectrum, for exclusive, flexible use by critical infrastructure owners and operators.” Acknowledging that even private telecom networks used by critical infrastructure industries, known as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, are vulnerable to cyberattack, CICC said the industry was “well aware of the potential risk” and that “vulnerabilities should not be addressed through the imposition of additional mandates at this time.”

Spectrum allocation, cybersecurity mandates and critical infrastructure protection have been the focus of all 3 committees receiving CICC’s letter, and will continue to be in the 2nd session of the 108th Congress. The Select Homeland Security Committee under Chmn. Cox (R-Cal.) will be considering legislation including a Dept. of Homeland Security reauthorization bill and a separate DHS enhancement measure to help DHS improve its mission and better incorporate 22 different federal agencies, committee Staff Dir. John Gannon said recently. The committee will be in the spotlight next year since its authorization as a select committee expires at the end of the session. Cox and others on the committee believe it should be made permanent.

House Govt. Reform Subcommittee Chmn. Putnam (R-Fla.) for weeks has been circulating draft legislation that would require publicly traded companies to inform the SEC of their cybersecurity strategies, the first step toward a federal mandate and an approach threatened recently by DHS. But Putnam last week said that for now he was listening to “numerous companies and associations” asking him to give the private sector a chance. The House Commerce Committee and the House Select Homeland Security Committee have examined interoperability for first responders and the possible need for dedicated spectrum.

“Perhaps the most serious vulnerability” for private telecom networks used by critical infrastructure industries is that “unlike traditional public safety agencies, there is no dedicated spectrum allocation for their use,” CICC wrote. Instead, it said, spectrum is shared with everything from taxi services to fast food outlets, and under SCADA, systems often are built as secondary status operators under FCC rules: “This means they would be required to shut down if they interfere with another mobile system, no matter how noncritical the function of the other user.”

Commercial networks aren’t reliable in a crisis, however, CICC wrote. It said that in the Aug. blackout, the mayor of Detroit couldn’t communicate with DHS because his cellphone didn’t work. Cell networks only have a few hours of battery life, CICC said, and can be flooded in times of crisis. CICC also argued that “those who wish to do us harm can easily access frequency and other wireless communications system information subject to [FCC] licensing authority.” For example, the infrastructure of many electric utilities must be provided to anyone who asks under the FCC’s pole attachment regulations. The other CICC members writing Congress were the American Petroleum Institute, the American Public Power Assn., the American Water Works Assn., the Edison Electric Institute and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn.