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from the unencrypted-in-a-list-on-the-interwebs dept.
The Federal Communications Commission plans to halt implementation of a privacy rule that requires ISPs to protect the security of its customers' personal information.
The data security rule is part of a broader privacy rulemaking implemented under former Chairman Tom Wheeler but opposed by the FCC's new Republican majority. The privacy order's data security obligations are scheduled to take effect on March 2, but Chairman Ajit Pai wants to prevent that from happening.
The data security rule requires ISPs and phone companies to take "reasonable" steps to protect customers' information—such as Social Security numbers, financial and health information, and Web browsing data—from theft and data breaches.
"Chairman Pai is seeking to act on a request to stay this rule before it takes effect on March 2," an FCC spokesperson said in a statement to Ars.
The rule would be blocked even if a majority of commissioners supported keeping them in place, because the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau can make the decision on its own.
Source: ArsTechnica
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @07:11PM
I wonder if the NIST recommendations on Enhancing National Cybersecurity delivered to Obama in December 2016 are going to be ignored or turned around, same as the original FCC initiative? Here's a comment by one of the Commission members that is well organized and easy to follow,
https://www.lawfareblog.com/regarding-report-presidential-commission-enhancing-national-cybersecurity%E2%80%A6 [lawfareblog.com]
There is no silver bullet for fixing or improving the nation’s cybersecurity posture. The commission’s recommendations for action cover a broad waterfront, and I’ve fielded many phone calls from journalists who want me to say “what’s the most important thing in the report?” Apart from underscoring the importance of concerted national attention to cybersecurity, it’s really hard to point out one singularly important thing. It’s also been interesting to see press coverage of the report—the various stories are all over the map regarding what aspect of the report they focus on. What I learn from this data is that improving the national cybersecurity posture is an effort that has to be fought on many fronts simultaneously. Indeed, that fact alone may account for much of the difficulty in generating strong public support for any particular measure to enhance cybersecurity—for any necessary measure, there is always a gaggle of other people advocating something else that is also necessary, and in the zero-sum game of attention politics, it’s hard to get focus behind anything specific.