Articles

New DOE document names China, Russia as threats to…

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A US Department of Energy RFI seeks information on energy industry’s supply chain security practices following executive order to develop industry regulations.
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On May 1, the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order on Securing the United States Bulk Power System that seeks to remove from the power grid crucial electric equipment supplied by vendors from foreign adversarial nations. Yesterday, the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Electricity issued a request for information (RFI) “seeking information to understand the energy industry’s current practices to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in the supply chain for components of the bulk-power system (BPS).”

The RFI is a follow-on to the executive order (EO), which directs the Energy Department, in consultation with other agencies, to develop regulations implementing its goals through a rulemaking process. The EO defines electric equipment as items used in substations, control rooms and power generating stations, including reactors, capacitors, substation transformers, large generators, voltage regulators, along with several other defined pieces of electrical equipment.

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.

5G

Domestic 5G development at core of US communications security…

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New NTIA document outlines White House 5G security goals, which promote home-grown R&D and call for continuous risk assessment and management.
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In late March, during the first phase of the coronavirus lockdown, the White House issued a little-noticed document entitled The National Strategy to Secure 5G of the United States, which articulates a “vision for America to lead the development, deployment, and management of secure and reliable 5G communications infrastructure worldwide, arm-in-arm with our closest partners and allies.” The document was the White House’s effort to comply with the Secure 5G and Beyond Act, which required the president to” develop a strategy to ensure the security of next generation mobile telecommunications systems and infrastructure in the United States.”

The Act also required the president to submit within 180 days an implementation plan developed in consultation with a host of government departments and agencies. In May, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) began a proceeding to receive comments on how it might implement the vision of the White House Strategy, with the comment period ending on June 25. Early this week, NTIA posted the comments it received from 80 organizations, corporations and interested individuals.

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.

Articles

White House strategy paper to secure 5G envisions America…

lead centered=”no”Though light on details, the paper offers clues as to how the US government sees the development and security of 5G communications moving forward./lead

With curiously little fanfare, the White House released last week a six-page document called the National Strategy to Secure 5G, a blueprint that was mandated by the Secure 5G and Beyond Act. That bill, signed into law by President Trump on the same day, March 23, that the White House released its strategy paper, directed the president to release his strategy paper within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.

The paper’s stated goal is to articulate a vision “for America to lead the development, deployment and management of secure and reliable 5G communications infrastructure, worldwide, arm-in-arm with our closest partners and allies.” The four “lines of effort” driving this vision include:

  • Facilitating the domestic roll-out of 5G
  • Assessing the security risks and core principles for infrastructure
  • Managing those economic and security risks
  • Promoting responsible global development and deployment of the 5G infrastructure

The domestic roll-out of 5G, coordinated by the National Economic Council, primarily lies with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has what it calls its 5G FAST plan. FAST makes more radiofrequency spectrum available, streamlines government processes, and “modernizes” regulation to promote the deployment of 5G backhaul. The Commerce Department is also working on a National Spectrum Strategy to plan for future generations of wireless networks.

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.

Articles

5G security is a mess. Could digital certificates help?

lead centered=”no”5G inherited security vulnerabilities from earlier mobile technology, but digital certificates might solve the issue of unauthenticated messages./lead

As countries around the world begin deploying 5G technology, the promises of faster speeds and better service sometime obscure a host of security issues affecting the next-generation cellular technology. These security concerns exist despite improvements in data encryption, authentication and privacy embodied in recent releases of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the technical standards organization for cellular communications.

The most prominent of 5G security fears are highlighted in the Trump administration’s fight to ban technology from China’s tech giant Huawei from U.S. next-generation networks. The U.S. government is also seeking to persuade European and other allies to shun Huawei, an effort that has met with limited success. The basic fear driving the Huawei ban is that the company caters to the government in Beijing and might very well embed surveillance capabilities into its technology or otherwise spy for the Chinese government, making 5G completely insecure from the get-go.

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.

Articles

Senator Warner seeks “grand alliance” to protect against surveillance…

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The senator believes Chinese companies will be required to aid surveillance of the US, especially as 5G networks roll out.
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When it comes to technology policy, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee, is clearly concerned about the power China holds, particularly when it comes to trusting China’s leading tech suppliers and the prospect of a China-dominated build-out of global 5G networks. “My beef is with the presidency, the Communist party. It is not with the Chinese people. I have no interest in trying to go back to some cold war bifurcated world, us against China,” the former telecom entrepreneur said during a panel discussion at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) second annual Cybersecurity Summit this week.

“I would argue that the Chinese people don’t want this regime as well. Look at what is happening in the streets of Hong Kong,” he said. “The kind of surveillance state that China is using in terms of their tech companies would make George Orwell’s 1984 look simple.”

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.