Hours before it appeared the government was set to shut down, President Biden issued an executive order Friday to extend the activities of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) until Sept. 30, 2025.
The NSTAC is housed within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) with the mission of providing the government with the best possible industry advice in telecommunications security.
For more than 40 years, the NSTAC has been a model for public-private collaboration by bringing together up to 30 senior executives from industry who represent major telecommunications, network service provider, information technology, finance, and aerospace companies – including tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon.
President Biden’s executive order ensures that the NSTAC will continue to operate under CISA for two more years.
Since its inception in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan, the NSTAC has addressed a wide range of policy and technical issues regarding communications, information systems, information assurance, critical infrastructure protection, and other national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) communications concerns.
“In recent years, the government, with the support of the NSTAC, addressed new NS/EP challenges caused by several primary factors: the convergence of traditional and broadband networks; the changing global threat environment; and the continuing global expansion of both provider and user communities,” CISA’s website says. “In the face of this ever-increasing complexity of the domestic and global network environment, the NSTAC’s work, more so than ever, is of vital national importance, and the committee remains vigilant in aggressively addressing our nation’s highest priority NS/EP communications needs.”
The group was most recently tasked with conducting a multiphase study on enhancing internet resilience in 2021 and beyond. The NSTAC produced three reports to the president: Software Assurance in the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain; Zero Trust and Trusted Identity Management; and Information Technology and Operational Technology Convergence.
President Biden’s Sept. 29 executive order also extended 36 other Federal advisory committees through fiscal year 2025.
