October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month
National Cyber Security Awareness (NCSAM), the annual campaign and combined efforts between private industry and public agencies, was created to enable companies and individuals to make better, smarter cybersecurity choices. For a listing of the weekly events planned for October 2017, see The Department of Homeland Security.
Week 4: October 23-27 – Theme: The Internet Wants YOU: Consider a Career in Cybersecurity
According to a study by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, by 2022, there will be a shortage of 1.8 million information security workers. It is critical that today’s students graduate ready to enter the workforce to fill the vast number of available cybersecurity positions. Week 4 will encourage students and other job seekers to explore cybersecurity careers. Key influencers – like parents, teachers, guidance counselors and state and local officials – will learn more about this growing field and how to engage youth in pursuing cybersecurity careers.
US Senators Introduce SPEED Act
U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) introduced S. 1988, “Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of Broadband Infrastructure Act of 2017” (SPEED Act). The measure would accelerate the deployment of new broadband infrastructure to both rural and urban areas by streamlining the permitting process for telecommunications equipment that is installed in locations that have already been subjected to historical or environmental reviews by:
The Act would not preempt the authority of a State or local government to apply and enforce all applicable zoning and other land use regulations.
FCC Commissioner O’Rielly issued a statement applauding the introduction of the legislation.
FCC Network Reliability Best Practices for Small and Rural Providers
The FCC’s Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) released a public notice encouraging small and rural communications service providers to review and consider implementing, where appropriate, best practices recommended by the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to improve network reliability. The Bureau reviewed the CSRIC best practices and outage data from the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System to identify trends and common failures among outages experienced by small and rural service providers. This process identified 23 of the most recurring best practices reported in NORS outage reports during the last five years. The Bureau encourages small and rural communications services providers to review and consider these 23 best practices along with other CSRIC best practices as appropriate for their networks.
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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.