FCC Seeking More Cyber Trust Mark Administrators

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2026 – The Federal Communications Commission is looking for additional entities to administer its Cyber Trust Mark program, the agency said Monday.

The announcement comes as the agency is also looking for a new top administrator after the previous pick withdrew amid FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s concerns over its ties to China.

The Cyber Trust Mark program was started during the Biden administration in an effort to incentivize companies to build cybersecurity capabilities into their internet-connected devices. It’s set to be voluntary, and companies looking to display the mark would have to show lab tests confirming a given product complies with cybersecurity standards set out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

The agency already approved 10 day-to-day administrators for the program, called cybersecurity label administrators or CLAs, in December 2024. There were originally 11, but CTIA, the wireless industry trade group, withdrew in August. The group said it still supported the program but stepped down because of the “​​robust participation” from other entities.

The already approved CLAs are “​​obligated to maintain their commitments made under their applications, including, demonstrations and certifications provided with respect to national security,” obtaining certification body accreditation, and “implementing and updating cybersecurity risk management plans,” the agency said in its Monday notice.

The filing window for new CLA applications will be open from Jan. 27 to Feb. 24.

The Cyber Trust Mark program was paused in June 2025 because of FCC concerns about the then-lead administrator, UL Solutions, being part of a joint venture with a Chinese firm and having testing locations based in the country.

The agency is seeking a replacement after UL Solutions stepped down. The filing window for lead administrator applications closes this week on Wednesday, Jan. 28.

“As a general matter, I think if you’re going to have a U.S. Cyber Trust Mark Administrator, it has to be pretty clean in terms of concerns about ties back into China,” Carr said at the agency’s November meeting.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner, said at the same meeting that she was skeptical of the need to put the program on pause and hoped the agency would restart it.

“We supposedly paused the cyber trust mark implementation because of concerns about United Laboratories’ ties in China,” she said. “I think that is imminently mitigable, and I don’t understand how we couldn’t have come up with that in a nanosecond.”