Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program

<RULE> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Part 54</CFR> <DEPDOC>[WC Docket No. 23-234; FCC 24-63; FRS ID 230286]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission or FCC) stablishes the Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program (Pilot or Pilot Program). The Pilot Program will enable the Commission to evaluate the impact that using Universal Service Fund (USF or Fund) support for eligible cybersecurity services and equipment will have on protecting school and library broadband networks and data. In so doing, the Commission seeks to address the apparent needs of schools and libraries for additional support for cybersecurity services and equipment, while evaluating the impact that providing that support would have on the USF. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective August 29, 2024, except for amendatory instruction 3 (adding §§ 54.2004, 54.2005, and 54.2006) and amendatory instruction 4 (adding § 54.2008), which are delayed indefinitely. The Commission will publish a document in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> announcing the effective date for those sections. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Kristin Berkland <E T="03">Kristin.Berkland@fcc.gov</E> in the Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, 202-418-7400 or TTY: 202-418-0484. Requests for accommodations should be made as soon as possible in order to allow the agency to satisfy such requests whenever possible. Send an email to <E T="03">fcc504@fcc.gov</E> or call the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This is a synopsis of the Commission's Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program, Report and Order (Order), in WC Docket No. 23-234; FCC 24-63, adopted June 6, 2024, and released June 11, 2024. The full text of this document is available at the following internet address: <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-200m-cybersecurity-pilot-program-schools-libraries-0.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Introduction</HD> 1. As broadband connectivity and internet access have become essential for K-12 students and adults alike, the security and safety of that access has likewise become paramount. Whether for online learning, job searching, or connecting with peers and the community, high-speed broadband is critical to educational, professional, and personal success in the modern world. Although broadband connectivity and internet access can simplify and enhance the education and daily lives of K-12 students, school staff, and library patrons, they can also be used by malicious actors to steal personal information, compromise online accounts, and cause online personal harm or embarrassment. In response to the growing importance of cybersecurity to broadband connectivity and internet access for K-12 schools and libraries, and in light of the increase in cyberattacks to disrupt or disable these critical networks, the Commission adopts a three-year pilot program within the USF to provide up to $200 million to support cybersecurity services and equipment for eligible schools and libraries. 2. The Pilot Program is a critical next step to evaluate whether, and to what extent, the Commission should leverage the USF to support the cybersecurity needs of schools and libraries. By proceeding via a short-term Pilot Program, the Commission can gather key data on the types of cybersecurity services and equipment that K-12 schools and libraries need to protect their broadband networks and securely connect students, school staff, and library patrons to advanced communications that are integral to education. The Pilot Program will evaluate whether supporting cybersecurity services and equipment with universal service funds advances the key universal service principles of providing quality internet and broadband services to K-12 schools and libraries at just, reasonable, and affordable rates; and ensuring schools' and libraries' access to advanced telecommunications. Importantly, the Pilot Program will also enable the Commission to better estimate the costs of supporting cybersecurity services and equipment via the USF, which will help inform future decisions on how to best utilize the USF to support the connectivity and network security needs of K-12 schools and libraries. Data and information collected through this Pilot Program may also aid in the considerations of broader efforts across the government to help schools and libraries address their cybersecurity concerns. In this regard, the Commission notes that other Federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the U.S. Department of Education (Education Department), have jurisdiction and deep expertise on cybersecurity matters, and the Commission expects continued interagency coordination will enable us to leverage their knowledge and resources to explore how the Commission can contribute to addressing the cybersecurity needs of K-12 schools and libraries. 3. Eligible schools and libraries will be able to request and receive support through the Pilot Program to purchase a wide range of qualifying cybersecurity services and equipment that best suit their particular needs. To ensure that the Commission is able to select a large number of participants for the Pilot Program, it adopts per-student and per-library budgets, subject to a minimum funding floor, as well as an overall funding cap. Additionally, the Commission expects to select a diverse cross-section of schools, libraries, and consortia to participate in the Pilot Program, with a focus on selecting applicants with the greatest need. By selecting a participant pool that reflects large, small, urban, rural, and Tribal schools and libraries, the Commission expects to gain a better understanding about the cybersecurity needs of a wide range of schools and libraries. 4. In adopting this Pilot Program, the Commission is also mindful of the E-Rate program's longstanding goal of promoting connectivity, as well as its obligation to be a mindful and prudent steward of the Commission's limited universal service funds. To that end, the Commission must balance its actions in this proceeding against competing priorities, bearing in mind that the universal service funds are obtained through assessments collected from telecommunications carriers that are typically passed on to and paid for by U.S. consumers. The Commission acknowledges that, as a limited-term Pilot Program, only a subset of K-12 schools and libraries will likely be selected and receive support to defray their cybersecurity-related costs. And, with a $200 million budget, the Pilot Program will not be able to fund all of the cybersecurity-related needs of the selected Pilot participants. The Commission notes that the estimated costs for all types of cybersecurity services may exceed the funding available for this Pilot Program, and it further notes that the Pilot participants will not receive 100% reimbursement, as they will be required to pay their non-discount share of the costs of the eligible services and equipment. Within this framework, the Commission finds that the Pilot Program will serve a vital role in informing the Commission, and the broader Federal Government, as to the most pressing cybersecurity needs of K-12 schools and libraries, and the associated costs, which will enable the Commission and other stakeholders to best address these needs on a long-term basis. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Discussion</HD> 5. In the Order, the Commission establishes a three-year Pilot Program to evaluate whether supporting cybersecurity services and equipment with universal service support could advance the key universal service principles of providing quality internet access and broadband services to K-12 schools and libraries at just, reasonable, and affordable rates; and ensuring schools' and libraries' access to advanced telecommunications as provided by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act). Specifically, the Commission first adopts a three-year Pilot timeframe and $200 million cap to support cybersecurity services and equipment, including advanced firewalls, for eligible schools and libraries, and consortia of eligible schools and libraries, using the Connected Care Pilot Program as a model. Second, the Commission establishes per-student and per-library budgets to specify the amount of funding that Pilot participants can receive and ensure funding can be widely disbursed. Next, the Commission confirms that all eligible schools and libraries, including those that do not currently participate in the E-Rate program, are eligible to apply to participate in the Pilot Program. The Commission then adopts a Pilot eligible services list that specifies the cybersecurity services and equipment that will be eligible for Pilot funding, and an application process that mirrors the E-Rate program and through which it can select a broad pool of participants. In addition, the Commission establishes Pilot Program rules and procedures for all phases of the Pilot, including competitive bidding, requesting funding, and invoicing/reimbursement. These Pilot rules and procedures draw on its experience administering the E-Rate and Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) programs and will promote efficient program administration and reduce burdens on Pilot participants. The Commission also appoints an Administrator of the Pilot and adopt program integrity protections, including document retention and production, gift, certification, audit, and s ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 312k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━