US Agency Looks At Creating a ‘311’ Call Line For Cybersecurity Incidents

We call 911 for help in life-threatening situations. But what if the US had an emergency telephone number focused on handling cybersecurity incidents? 

The US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is considering the idea. On Wednesday, an advisory committee under the agency recommended(Opens in a new window) it launch a national campaign for a 311 call line. 

The call line would be designed to provide assistance for small and medium businesses that have just experienced a cybersecurity incident. The proposal came from George Stathakopoulos, Apple’s vice president of corporate information security, who also sits on the advisory committee. The idea was among several recommendations the committee floated to encourage the public to adopt the best cybersecurity practices. 

A call line could help by offering immediate cybersecurity training to small and medium businesses, which often have limited resources to spend on bolstering their IT defenses. The call line could also pave a new way for federal authorities to track hacking incidents.  

As The Record notes(Opens in a new window), Congress passed a bill earlier this year that requires companies to report a cybersecurity incident to federal authorities within 72 hours. However, the bill only applies to companies considered critical infrastructure. As a result, CISA and the FBI can still struggle to track the entire hacking landscape when many private organizations still refuse to report when they’ve suffered a serious breach. 

CISA didn’t provide details about the 311 call line proposal or how it would be implemented. But it looks like the idea is still in the early stages. According to a readout of the meeting, CISA’s director Jen Easterly plans on reviewing the advisory committee’s recommendations. Other proposals from Wednesday’ advisory committee meeting include expanding CISA’s “More Than A Password(Opens in a new window)” campaign to push more users and companies to adopt multi-factor authentication instead of merely relying on password logins only. 

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