AI Frontier Institute

Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act

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The Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act requires the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, to submit a report to Congress within one year of enactment examining the cybersecurity of mobile service networks and their vulnerability to cyberattacks and adversarial surveillance (Section 2(a)). The report must address: how well mobile service providers have responded to known cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified by researchers, standards bodies, and federal agencies including NTIA, NIST, CISA, and DHS S&T (Section 2(b)(1)); the extent to which customers factor cybersecurity into purchase decisions and the availability of risk-evaluation tools (Section 2(b)(2)); provider adoption of cybersecurity best practices and risk frameworks (Section 2(b)(3)); the prevalence and effectiveness of encryption and authentication in mobile services, equipment, devices, and software (Section 2(b)(4)); barriers to adopting stronger encryption and phasing out outdated algorithms (Section 2(b)(5)); technologies that authenticate legitimate mobile networks (Section 2(b)(6)); and the prevalence, costs, and adversarial use of cell site simulators and similar surveillance technologies in the United States (Section 2(b)(7)). The scope is limited to existing mobile service networks and explicitly excludes 5G protocols (Section 2(d)(2)). The report must be unclassified but may include a classified annex, and potentially exploitable unclassified information must be redacted from the public version (Section 2(e)). The Assistant Secretary must consult a wide range of stakeholders including the FCC, NIST, the intelligence community, academic researchers, standards organizations, international stakeholders, mobile service providers, device manufacturers, and software developers (Section 2(c)).

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