The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday announced the launch of a new task force to coordinate privacy and data protection efforts at the agency, which oversees a telecommunications industry often targeted by cybercriminals.
The task force will “coordinate across the agency on the rulemaking, enforcement, and public awareness needs in the privacy and data protection sectors,” according to an FCC press release. “This will include data breaches—such as those involving telecommunications providers and related to cyber intrusions—and supply chain vulnerabilities involving third-party vendors that service regulated communications providers.”
The group, which already met this week, is being led by FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal and is comprised of staff across the agency.
The telecommunications sector presents a popular option for cyberattacks given the extensive personal information companies in the space retain from their customers. Mobile devices are often targeted by hackers as a means to reach their victims, which emphasizes the importance of personal phone number details being appropriately safeguarded.
The FCC has already been paying scrutiny to breaches that take place at telecoms. The agency in January confirmed it was investigating T-Mobile after the company disclosed a bad actor used a single application programming interface to obtain the data of approximately 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customer accounts.
No comments yet