The US communications sector is entering a new phase of cybersecurity collaboration as eight of the country’s largest telecom and infrastructure providers launch a new industry-led security initiative. AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Lumen Technologies, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Zayo have jointly established the Communications Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (C2 ISAC), a nonprofit organization designed to strengthen cyber resilience across the communications ecosystem.
While cybersecurity collaboration is not new to the sector, the creation of C2 ISAC signals a broader shift toward faster, more structured intelligence sharing among major operators.
Communications providers increasingly sit at the center of national infrastructure, connecting enterprises, governments, and consumers through critical networks. The initiative is intended to help companies maintain greater visibility across today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape and strengthen defenses against emerging cyber risks.
Building a Centralized Cyber Defense Framework
C2 ISAC has been established as a dedicated cybersecurity information-sharing organization focused specifically on the communications industry. The nonprofit builds upon decades of public-private cooperation through the National Coordinating Center for Communications, commonly known as COMM-ISAC, which was established in 1984 to support resilience and information exchange between government agencies and private-sector communications companies.
The new initiative brings together eight major communications providers that collectively represent a substantial portion of the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure. Through the organization, members will share threat intelligence, operational insights, and defensive strategies intended to improve the speed and effectiveness of incident response across the sector.
According to the announcement, C2 ISAC is designed to provide a trusted environment where technical experts can collaborate directly to identify and mitigate cyber threats. The structure aims to improve situational awareness across member organizations while strengthening the resilience of critical communications infrastructure that supports both public and private services.
Leadership of the organization will fall to Valerie Moon, who has been appointed executive director. Moon brings experience across cybersecurity, homeland security, and public-private coordination, including previous leadership roles at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI, and other cyber-focused organizations. Day-to-day operations will be overseen by Moon, while the initial board of directors will consist of chief information security officers from the eight founding companies.
The move also reflects a growing operational reality within cybersecurity. Rapid information exchange is becoming just as important as prevention itself. Attack campaigns now evolve in hours rather than weeks, forcing organizations to rethink how intelligence is shared, analyzed, and acted upon.
Why the Industry Is Moving Now
The launch of C2 ISAC comes at a pivotal moment for the cybersecurity industry. AI has fundamentally altered the threat landscape, enabling attackers to automate reconnaissance, generate increasingly convincing phishing campaigns, and accelerate the speed at which vulnerabilities are identified and exploited.
For telecommunications companies, the stakes are particularly high. Communications infrastructure has become deeply intertwined with economic activity, public safety, government operations, and enterprise connectivity. Any disruption to those systems could create cascading effects across multiple sectors simultaneously.
At the same time, recent advancements in frontier AI models have intensified industry concerns around cybersecurity preparedness. The release of Claude Mythos, while still limited in rollout and discussion, has fueled broader conversations about how advanced AI systems could reshape both cyber offense and cyber defense capabilities.
The emergence of increasingly sophisticated AI systems is pushing organizations toward a new cybersecurity model built less around isolated defense and more around shared intelligence and collective resilience. The communications sector appears to recognize that traditional competitive boundaries become less relevant when facing increasingly automated and adaptive threats.
This shift is also influencing how governments and enterprises approach critical infrastructure protection. Collaboration between public institutions and private operators is no longer viewed as optional but as a necessary component of national cyber resilience. In many ways, C2 ISAC represents an acknowledgment that future cybersecurity strategies will depend heavily on collective awareness and coordinated action.
The New Model for Cybersecurity Cooperation
The establishment of C2 ISAC may ultimately represent more than the launch of another industry organization. It reflects a broader evolution in how the communications sector approaches cybersecurity in an era increasingly shaped by AI-driven risks and interconnected infrastructure.
By formalizing intelligence sharing among some of the nation’s largest communications providers, the initiative aims to create faster pathways for identifying threats, coordinating responses, and strengthening operational resilience. That approach could become increasingly important as cyberattacks continue to grow in sophistication and frequency.
As AI continues to accelerate both innovation and risk, sectors responsible for critical infrastructure are under growing pressure to modernize their defensive frameworks. In an era of AI-powered cyber threats, cybersecurity is rapidly becoming a shared responsibility rather than an isolated one.
