FCC
Chairman Julius Genachowski outlined various ways the U.S. government, particularly his commission, was combating
cyberattacks, but that does not include a coordinated global effort if it means
adding cybersecurity
provisions to international telecommunication regulations.
He was echoing
Ambassador Terry Kramer, who was tapped by President Obama to lead the U.S. delegation
to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT 12) in Dubai next month, and who raised similar concerns in an
American Enterprise Institute speech and panel discussion earlier this week.
Genachowski and
Kramer's concerns, shared by a bipartisan -- for once -- Congress are that
adding cybersecurity to the ITU to-do list is part of an effort to expand
current treaties on ITRS (International
Telecommunications Regulations) into the Internet space, and give governments
like China, Russia and some Arab states an avenue for control of content and
its free flow.
In a speech at the Centcom
Conference on advancing cybersecurity, Genchowski said the WCIT conference
poses real challenges, and pointed to the calls for cybersecurity to part of
the treaty conference.
"Calls to add cybersecurity provisions in the
International Telecommunication Regulations are misplaced and ultimately
counterproductive," he said. "International regulations are simply too
broad, too inflexible, and too slow to change to effectively address
cybersecurity issues. And any attempt to draft a 'one-size-fits-all' text
could easily do more harm than good."
