Shirley Bloomfield wants every broadband company to understand the importance of placing cybersecurity among their top priorities: “What I would love to see come out of CyberShare is proselytizing to the rest of the broadband industry to say, ‘I know it’s scary, and I know it’s a pain, and I know you’re afraid it’s going to be expensive, but you can’t afford to leave your networks vulnerable.’”
Bloomfield — CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association — told Telecompetitor about CyberShare’s formation when she spoke with us two weeks ago.
Referring to CyberShare, she said, “This ISAC [Information Sharing and Analysis Center] we have is really important. When the first ISACs were formed, it was the big companies — Verizon, Charter, Comcast — sitting around the table talking about the threats they saw on their networks.”
But Bloomfield knew, even then, that the meeting of national companies would be of little use for rural broadband. “NTCA had a little chair in the corner of the room, and every discussion, every resolution was geared towards big companies.”
In the wake of this experience, NTCA helped create the CyberShare ISAC — which just held its annual summit — to help small broadband providers focus on cybersecurity priorities.
“When we started this ISAC, the beauty of it was having these folks around the table saying: ‘What is happening on small company networks? How are we patching? How are we sharing the threat with the rest of the participants in the program?’”
As stated in the quote at the start of this article, Bloomfield thinks broadband providers must take steps to keep their networks from vulnerabilities. She said every rural provider should take advantage of the free resources for telecommunications providers offered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“The first step should be to go to the CISA website and download everything they’re willing to give you,” said Bloomfield. “I have member companies for whom CISA has come out and done these tabletop [exercises] to say, ‘Here’s your vulnerability, you better close this door, you need multi-factor [authentication] on this.’”
Bloomfield believes CISA’s resources are an “undervalued gem.” “What a gift,” she said. “If you are a small company and you can’t afford those resources, this is great stuff. And they have people in the field, so it’s super easy. I really want NTCA members to understand the value that CISA brings.”
Priorities Beyond Cybersecurity: Electric/Broadband Partnerships
The final minutes of Telecompetitor’s wide-ranging interview with Bloomfield covered multiple topics, including (1) partnerships between electric cooperatives and broadband companies, (2) what she wishes legislators knew about the rural broadband industry, and (3) disaster relief.
Regarding electric cooperatives and broadband companies working together, Bloomfield said her favorite examples are when “collaborative leaders can see beyond their own ego and their own identity” to create something that benefits the entire community.
She told stories about the types of partnerships she has witnessed:
- Two directors — one from an electric co-op and one from a broadband company —started a conversation “in the middle of a church parking lot,” which eventually grew into a partnership that has expanded its portfolio to offer water services.
- She told the story of an electric co-op that had a bigger service area than the local broadband company. According to Bloomfield, when they discussed a partnership, an early question was, “Who gets to control it? Will it be the telco side? Will it be the electric side?” So, the two companies formed an entirely new CLEC, with board members from both companies serving on the new, joint board.
- A third story was about a fiber broadband company that worked with its local electric cooperative to expand fiber to an area “significantly bigger than their original footprint.” It happened, she said, because of “two leaders in the community who were able to see the needs” of the surrounding region.
Priorities Beyond Cybersecurity: Rural Broadband and Legislators
When asked what she wishes legislators understood about the broadband industry, Bloomfield said, “I wish, first of all, that they really understood rural.”
She expanded by saying, “I wish they understood the demographic of what we’re talking about. I wish they had the opportunity to actually see these areas of service. I think there are times where people think, well, you’re just looking for another government program or a handout, or you want to get around some rules, or you want an exemption because you’re small.”
But Bloomfield said that these misconceptions of rural America and rural broadband miss the point of the work rural broadband companies do. “Take a day and go out to Guymon, Oklahoma, and see what it takes [to build broadband there]. See the areas these folks serve and why it’s a challenge, but also why it changes lives when you provide that service. I think the payback to policymakers is tenfold. I just wish they had a sense of that.”
Priorities Beyond Cybersecurity: Disaster Relief
When Hurricane Helene struck in late September, the disaster quickly became personal for NTCA. NTCA has “about a hundred staff” in Asheville, North Carolina, one of the cities hit hardest by Helene. NTCA activated its Disaster Relief Clearinghouse for people affected by Helene. And they also scrambled to help staff members whose homes were damaged, who had no electricity and running water, and who were displaced in the storm’s aftermath.
“Watching [the Asheville staff] go through recovery has been really tough, and it’s still going to take a while. We also have a few telephone cooperatives [in the area], like SkyLine in West Jefferson, North Carolina. I was communicating with the CEO this morning, and they’re still struggling. Crews came down from our Tennessee member companies to help them get back up.”
Bloomfield said it is “cathartic” for NTCA’s member companies to have a way to help other people around the country who are affected by natural disasters. “People are very on edge,” she said. “It’s going to be a long road. Every one of [the people affected] says, ‘You think you can imagine it, but you cannot imagine this. You just can’t imagine.’”
This is the final article in a four-part Industry Perspective series, based on interviews with Shirley Bloomfield. The other three articles are:
