FCC to Study Border Gateway Protocol Vulnerabilities Amid Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The Federal Communications Commission will has issued a notice of inquiry to find ways to secure the Border Gateway Protocol internet routing system.

According to the FCC, the Department of Homeland Security warned U.S. organizations that they could face cyber threats as a result of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The FCC will look into the vulnerabilities facing the internet’s global routing system and examine how these vulnerabilities will affect data transmission through email, e-commerce, bank transactions, interconnected voice-over-internet protocol and 911 calls.

The FCC will also look at how to address the gaps and is accepting comments regarding the matter. The commission also wants to know about regulating secure internet routing, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

The FCC notice explained how BGP vulnerabilities could affect services. According to the agency, bad actors will use a botnet to manipulate BGP to execute a distributed denial-of-service attack similar to the ones that affected the Ukrainian government and banking institutions.

The commission also explained that such vulnerabilities could be exploited to redirect data traffic and steal critical information.

The notice listed several efforts that the FCC and other organizations have been taking to establish secure use of BGP. The commission, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Society have all documented best practices to protect users from BGP vulnerabilities.

While best practices are generally available for review, internet service providers have not been comprehensively implementing the measures.

Interested entities can submit feedback once the notice is posted in the Federal Register.