Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

When government officials "move fast, break things," they risk unintentionally breaking systems they didn't real

Recently, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that he had established a new Council on National Security within the FCC. Chairman Carr is now disclosing the first major initiative that this Council has been leading. Specifically, the FCC has launched a sweeping investigation into the ongoing U.S. operations of CCP-aligned businesses whose equipment or services the FCC previously placed on its Covered List based on determinations that those equipment or services pose unacceptable risks to America’s national security.

A US general is warning that China and Russia are gaining ground in their efforts to develop anti-satellite weaponry, which includes using "dogfighting" tactics to stalk and attack US satellites.  “We're also now starting to see our near peers focusing on practicing dogfighting in space," says General Michael Guetlein, the vice chief for the US Space Force.

The White House is working to “improve Wi-Fi connectivity,” according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. According to The New York Times, it’s using Starlink to address the issue, which White House officials blame on the property’s spotty cell service and “overtaxed” Wi-Fi infrastructure. Huh.

Information sharing on cybersecurity and election threats may become a whole lot harder after the Department of Homeland Security ended some federal funding for two partnerships used by thousands of state and local governments. A spokesperson for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed it terminated a $10 million partnership with the Center for Internet Security for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr established a new Council for National Security within the FCC. The Council will leverage the full range of the FCC’s regulatory, investigatory, and enforcement authorities to promote America’s national security and counter foreign adversaries, particularly the threats posed by the People’s Republic of China and Chinese Communist Party. Chairman Carr also named his National Security Counsel, Adam Chan, as the first Director of the FCC’s Council on National Security. The Council will have a 3-part goal:

The Consortium for School Networking is alarmed by the Administration’s decision to eliminate the staff of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology and significantly reduce cybersecurity services that protect K-12 schools. These actions threaten the progress of digital learning, widen inequities in student access to technology and expose school districts to increased cybersecurity risks. Educators across the country rely on the federal government’s technical assistance and guidance to navigate the opportunities and challenges of educational technology.

On March 4, the House of Representatives' Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), held a full committee markup to consider twelve bills in total––the committee's first legislative markup of the 119th Congress. "This Committee has a rich, bipartisan history, which we will continue in that spirit with the bills we are considering today," said Rep Guthrie in his opening remarks.

Ahead of the 2024 U.S. election, there was widespread fear that generative artificial intelligence (AI) presented an unprecedented threat to democracy.

Human rights conferences can be sobering, to say the least. They highlight the David vs. Goliath situation of small civil society organizations fighting to center human rights in decisions about technology, sometimes challenging the priorities of much more powerful governments and technology companies. But 2025's RightsCon, the 13th since the event began as the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference in 2011, felt especially urgent.