FCC urges service providers to implement cybersecurity

There have been reports of a significant increase in cyber exploits targeting voice service providers of all sizes. For this reason, the FCC issued a public notice urging communications providers to implement cybersecurity best practices. Let's have a look.

This public notice reports that, “over the past year, the Commission has become aware of ransomware incidents involving small-to-medium sized companies that disrupted service, exposed information, and locked providers out of critical files.”

The Commission cites information from a Cyble Inc. threat assessment report that reports a fourfold increase in ransomware attacks from 2021 through 2025. These attacks affected communications providers large and small.

Cybersecurity measures

The public notice provides a substantial list of best practices for preventing and mitigating ransomware attacks, including:

• Develop a cybersecurity risk management plan
• Perform software updates promptly and disable unnecessary features
• Enable multi-factor authentication
• Perform regular backups
• Train employees in cybersecurity awareness
• Segment networks and implement a “zero trust” architecture
• Deploy detection and protection processes with regular scans
• Evaluate third-party risk.

The public notice also outlines steps to respond to a ransomware attack:

• Follow your cybersecurity risk management plan
• Identify and isolate affected systems
• Preserve evidence
• Patch and harden systems
• Restore data from clean backups
• Report the incident to the FCC and law enforcement as appropriate.

Finally, the public notice provides an extensive list of documents on cybersecurity best practices.

We encourage voice service providers to review and leverage this information. It might help protect your business and customers from significant harm.

More information

• FCC public notice on cybersecurity best practices
• Cyble Inc., Telecommunications Sector Threat Landscape Report 2025 (registration required)

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