Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai have asked governors through a joint letter to provide the communications industry and its workers access to resources as they work to continue to keep citizens connected during the coronavirus pandemic.

FCC said Tuesday that Krebs and Pai called on state leaders to consider reviewing CISA’s updated guidance on 911 centers and essential critical infrastructure workforce during the pandemic.

They also asked governors to declare certain communications infrastructure and entities essential to COVID-19 response efforts, distribute personal protective equipment to communications personnel, understand the role of customer service employees in communications retail sector in addressing clients’ remote emergency communications needs and facilitate repair and maintenance of communications services and infrastructure.

“As our nation continues to respond to COVID-19, our ability to maintain reliable and consistent communication is vital,” Krebs said. “We commend industry on making the investments to ensure the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure was ready for this moment and CISA is committed to ensuring the sector has the support and resources needed to continue operating.”

Government and industry should collaborate on next-generation 911 projects and communications network infrastructure.

“We urge state leaders, who are playing a critical role in protecting their communities, to consider the recommendations we are making today to ensure that communications networks and services remain available to the public and first responders,” Pai said.

Steven Hernandez, chief information security officer at the Department of Education, said that implementing artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation will support the foundations of a zero-trust architecture, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Hernandez told the publication in an interview that establishing zero-trust concepts is crucial to implementing outsourced services such as cloud computing that entail a “certain amount of trust” with agency contractors.

“One of the foundational pieces of zero trust is the more data you have, the better you understand it,” he said. “The more history of data you have, the better decisions your automation can make.”

Hernandez noted that collaborations between data officials such as general counsels and chief data officers are also key to developing a zero-trust infrastructure and training the “trust engine” through datasets such as attendance records.

He added the Education Department is also working to deploy qualitative metrics as employees continue to operate in telework settings.

Hernandez’s comments come after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 guidance last month and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) established a working group for zero-trust implementation.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has partnered with the Department of Energy (DoE) and a U.K.-based cybersecurity center to publish a document of standards for the protection of industrial control systems.

The two-page “Cybersecurity Best Practices for Industrial Control Systems” infographic features recommendations for handling ICS-related cyber risks, CISA said Friday.

The document also includes ICS process security practices and information on cyber events that impact ICS platforms in the short and long term. Some of the content also builds on the U.K. cybersecurity center’s operational technology and principles for secure design.