The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 along party lines on Thursday to scrap rules that required U.S. phone and internet giants to meet certain minimum cybersecurity requirements.<\/p>\n
The FCC\u2019s two Trump-appointed commissioners, chairman Brendan Carr and his Republican colleague Olivia Trusty, voted to withdraw the rules that require telecommunications carriers to \u201csecure their networks from unlawful access or interception of communications.\u201d The Biden administration had adopted these rules prior to leaving office earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n The FCC\u2019s sole Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, dissented. In a statement<\/a> following the vote, Gomez called the now-overturned rules the \u201conly meaningful effort this agency has advanced\u201d since the discovery of a sweeping campaign by a China-backed hacking group called Salt Typhoon<\/a> that involved hacking into a raft of U.S. phone and internet companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n The hackers broke into more than 200 telcos, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, during the years-long campaign to conduct broad-scale surveillance of American officials. In some cases, the hackers targeted wiretap systems<\/a> that the U.S. government previously required telcos to install for law enforcement access.<\/p>\n The FCC\u2019s move to change the rules sparked rebuke from senior lawmakers, including Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Peters said he was \u201cdisturbed\u201d by the FCC\u2019s effort to roll back \u201cbasic cybersecurity safeguards\u201d and warned that doing so will \u201cleave the American people exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement<\/a> that the rule change \u201cleaves us without a credible plan\u201d to address the basic security gaps exploited by Salt Typhoon and others.<\/p>\n