Security News

Outgoing Federal Communications Chair Ajit Pai has issued a final warning about Chinese telcos at the end of a tenure spent cracking down on companies like Huawei, ZTE and China Telecom. Pai, a former telecommunications industry lobbyist and in-house counsel for Verizon, told Reuters that managing security threats against U.S. networks from Chinese espionage will be the "Biggest national security issue that regulators will face in the next four years."

Ossia announced that the Federal Communications Commission granted Ossia an additional equipment authorization for its next-generation Cota wireless power platform. The FCC's approval authorizes wireless power delivery and data communications under Parts 18 and 15, respectively, of the FCC's rules and permits the system to be marketed and sold in the U.S. This FCC authorization marks the culmination of on-going efforts at Ossia to improve performance and capabilities of the platform as a launchpad to new applications and use cases.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday designated Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE as national security threats. By declaring the Chinese companies national security threats, the FCC is banning U.S. organizations from acquiring equipment or services using money from the agency's Universal Service Fund.

7% of the recommendations were only partially implemented and 30% were not implemented at all as of November 2019, although the FCC is planning on fully implementing all recommendations by April 2021. "Until FCC fully implements these recommendations and resolves the associated deficiencies, its information systems and information will remain at increased risk of misuse, improper disclosure or modification, and loss," GAO notes in the newly published report.

Rather, they enable carriers to authenticate calls, after which consumers will be able to tell if a number is likely to be a robocall. The FCC says STIR/SHAKEN should help to protect consumers against malicious caller ID spoofing, often used in robocall scams to trick us into answering our phones so telemarketers and/or scammers can bleat at us.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission today proposed fines of more than $200 million against the nation's four largest wireless carriers for selling access to their customers' location information without taking adequate precautions to prevent unauthorized access to that data. While the fines would be among the largest the FCC has ever levied, critics say the penalties don't go far enough to deter wireless carriers from continuing to sell customer location data.

The Federal Communications Commission Friday proposed fines against the nation's four largest wireless carriers for selling real-time mobile phone location data without taking reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to that information. In Friday statement, Paj said: "The FCC has long had clear rules on the books requiring all phone companies to protect their customers' personal information. And since 2007, these companies have been on notice that they must take reasonable precautions to safeguard this data and that the FCC will take strong enforcement action if they don't. Today, we do just that. This FCC will not tolerate phone companies putting Americans' privacy at risk."

The chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - which oversees the FCC - Frank Pallone issued a statement: "Following our longstanding calls to take action, the FCC finally informed the Committee today that one or more wireless carriers apparently violated federal privacy protections by turning a blind eye to the widespread disclosure of consumers' real-time location data. This is certainly a step in the right direction, but I'll be watching to make sure the FCC doesn't just let these lawbreakers off the hook with a slap on the wrist." For her part, Commissioner Rosenworcel put out a statement saying: "For more than a year, the FCC was silent after news reports alerted us that for just a few hundred dollars, shady middlemen could sell your location within a few hundred meters based on your wireless phone data."

A Federal Communications Commission investigation found that one or more U.S. wireless carriers violated federal law by selling consumer location data to third parties, according to a letter FCC Chairman Ajit Pai sent to congressional lawmakers. The findings described in the letter came from an investigation the FCC launched after the New York Times in 2018 reported about how the biggest wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, were giving real-time location data to third-party companies.

Now, a cadre of lawmakers is demanding to know what the agency might be doing to track and combat SIM swapping. The lawmakers asked the FCC to divulge whether it tracks consumer complaints about fraudulent SIM swapping and number "Port-outs," which involve moving the victim's phone number to another carrier.