Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week proposed requiring telecom firms to submit an annual certification attesting that they have a plan in place to protect against cyberattacks. Lujan said federal agencies’ outstanding recommendations “must be fully implemented across our networks”.
Republican Senator Dan Sullivan said in briefings US officials focused on defence efforts to address Chinese hacking. “What about offence?” he asked. “What about deterrence?”
The White House last week said at least eight telecommunications and infrastructure firms in the United States had been impacted and a large number of Americans’ metadata has been stolen in the sweeping cyber espionage campaign.
Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms.”
The House is set to vote Wednesday on an annual defence bill that includes nearly US$3.1 billion for US telecom companies to remove equipment made by Chinese telecoms firms Huawei and ZTE from American wireless networks.
The FCC says removing the insecure equipment is estimated to cost US$4.98 billion but Congress previously only approved US$1.9 billion for the “rip and replace” program.
US officials previously alleged hackers targeted Verizon, AT&T, Lumen and others, and stole telephone audio intercepts along with a large tranche of call record data.
