The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — along with the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and various international partners — has released a joint guide to share best practices for protecting communication infrastructure. The guide, Enhanced Visibility and Hardening Guidance for Communications Infrastructure, offers advice for defending against threats from malicious actors associated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This guide coincides with the recent reports of compromised telecommunications networks. 

The guide is designed for network engineers as well as communications infrastructure defenders, advocating for strengthening visibility and securing network devices against the wide-reaching cyber espionage campaign. 

“Threat actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are have targeted commercial telecommunications providers to compromise sensitive data and engage in cyber espionage,” states Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “Together with our interagency partners, the FBI issued guidance to enhance the visibility of network defenders and to harden devices against PRC exploitation. We strongly encourage organizations to review and implement the recommended measures in this guide and to report suspicious activity to their local FBI field office.”