Telecom sector launches its own private ISAC
Telecom sector launches its own private ISAC
https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/telecom-cybersecurity-c2-isac-launch/820553/
Publish Date: 2026-05-19 11:01:00
Source Domain: www.cybersecuritydive.com
Major U.S. telecommunications companies launched a new information sharing group on Tuesday in a bid to redouble their collective efforts to combat AI-powered cyberattacks, state-sponsored espionage and other increasing threats to communications networks.
The Communications Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or C2 ISAC, will give telecoms a private venue for exchanging sensitive information such as newly discovered vulnerabilities and tips about threat actor behavior. The eight founding members are AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Lumen, T-Mobile, Verizon and Zayo. Their chief information security officers will sit on the C2 ISAC’s board, while Valerie Moon, a former top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI’s Cyber Division, will serve as the group’s executive director.
The group’s formation comes as major cyberattacks like China’s Salt Typhoon espionage operation highlight the growing risks facing the U.S. telecom sector — and as the Trump administration’s pullback from key cybersecurity partnerships forces the private sector to take a leading role.
“The main driver for us is our recognition that the threat environment has evolved, and we as a sector and private entities need to evolve and really keep up with the pace and velocity [at which] that’s happening,” Mark Clancy, T-Mobile’s chief security officer and a C2 ISAC board member, told Cybersecurity Dive in an interview.
As telecoms scrambled to respond to Salt Typhoon, Clancy added, “the need for us to collaborate on a private-to-private basis really became amplified.”
The telecom industry already shares threat intelligence and best practices under the auspices of the Communications ISAC, also known as the National Coordinating Center for Communications. But that group, created in 1984, is unique among ISACs in that it sits within the federal government, at CISA,…
