Eight major communications companies have created a new non-profit, the Communications Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (C2 ISAC), that is going to coordinate cybersecurity issues across the sector. The original founders include AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Lumen, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Zayo.

This effort expands on a long-time public-private cybersecurity efforts between carriers and government agencies through the National Coordinating Center for Communications (ISAC). The existing ISAC effort includes a lot of non-communications companies like Apple, Boeing, Cloudflare, Hughes, Juniper, and Qualcomm.

There are several reasons for the creation of the new entity. The industry and networks are facing threats from hackers like China’s Salt Typhoon, and the severity of cyberattacks is increasing. Hackers are trying to disrupt and shut down networks, are trying to steal customer information, and are trying to steal trade secrets from telecom companies. Nation-state hackers have breached critical infrastructure in healthcare, energy, water, and telecommunications companies. For example, it’s been documented that Salt Typhoon targeted companies like Charter, Consolidated Communications, Windstream, Cisco, and Viasat in 2025.

There is also an increasing sentiment in the cybersecurity world that major cutbacks in the federal government have decreased any reliance on the federal government to police major cybersecurity threats. This means that hospitals, electric utilities, water treatment plants, energy companies, and telecommunication companies are more on their own to tackle security threats for their sectors. There are stories circulating that government officials have stopped attending cybersecurity events, have stopped working with some of the key commercial players, and have put coordination efforts on hold. I’ve seen articles that describe the current cybersecurity situation between the government and private companies as being in suspended animation.

Even before this latest distancing from government, there were issues in the larger ISAC effort, which included fourteen government agencies like the FCC, NTIA, the Department of Defense, the FBI, and others.  Many telecom companies have been leery for years about sharing sensitive data with government agencies. The hope is that a new group composed of only telecom companies will make it easier for members to be candid with each other.

One of the reasons I wrote the blog is to recognize that the cybersecurity efforts by the largest companies in the sector tend to help everybody else. These are the companies that push hardware and software vendors to stay current with cybersecurity measures that benefit everybody else.