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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFCC made up DDoS-attack and lied to US Senators to cover up public anger over policies.
https://gizmodo.com/fcc-emails-show-agency-spread-lies-to-bolster-dubious-d-1826535344The FCC has been unwilling or unable to produce any evidence an attack occurrednot to the reporters whove requested and even sued over it, and not to U.S. lawmakers whove demanded to see it. Instead, the agency conducted a quiet campaign to bolster its cyberattack story with the aid of friendly and easily duped reporters, chiefly by spreading word of an earlier cyberattack that its own security staff say never happened.
The FCCs system was overwhelmed on the night of May 7, 2017, after comedian John Oliver, host of HBOs Last Week Tonight, directed his audience to flood the agency with comments supporting net neutrality. In the immediate aftermath, the agency claimed the comment system had been deliberately impaired due to a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS). Net neutrality supporters, however, accused the agency of fabricating the attack to absolve itself from failing to keep the system online.
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In August, Gizmodo revealed that Bray had been the anonymous source behind reports that the FCC had been hacked in 2014. Multiple FCC sourcesincluding a security contractor who worked on the comment system at the timeconfirmed that no evidence was ever found showing a malicious attack caused the systems downtime during Olivers show.
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The Journal apparently swallowed the FCCs revised history of the incident, reporting that the agency also revealed that the 2014 show had been followed by DDoS attacks too, as if it were a fact that had been concealed for several years. After it was published, the Journals article, authored by tech reporter John McKinnon, was forwarded by Bray to reporters at other outlets and portrayed as a factual telling of events. Bray also emailed the story to several private citizens who had contacted the FCC with questions and concerns about the comment systems issues.
In doing so, the FCC was apparently using the Journal as a way to bolster its own unsubstantiated claims, which the agencys security staff, and its former leadership, had internally dismissed.
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However, in response to inquiries from Senators Ron Wyden and Brian Schatz last year, the FCC stated that the disruption was caused by what it called a non-traditional DDoS attack.
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Last July, the agency refused to release more than 200 pages of documents related to the incident in response to a FOIA request filed by Gizmodo. In a formal letter, the agency claimed that while its IT staff had observed a cyberattack taking place, those observations did not result in written documentation. A federal watchdog investigation, which is ongoing, followed in October.
Exotica
(1,461 posts)So sick of this shit!! Fire/remove ALL involved and put net neutrality back in effect. Fuck Comcast/ATT et al.
Eugene
(61,900 posts)gademocrat7
(10,659 posts)A cabal of vipers.
uponit7771
(90,347 posts)lisby
(408 posts)So, thousands and thousands of U.S. citizens expressing their outrage over the ending of net neutrality by placing comments on a website is now defined as "a non-traditional DDoS attack." Big Brother would be proud.
Volaris
(10,272 posts)My Chamber against the Other Chamber, Both Chambers against the Executive, (AND THEN) Party 'first'.
Congress has abdicated an IMMENSE amount Power to the Executive Branch for the sake of political expediency, and no matter what happens, THAT will need to be put right. I'd rather have to endure a dozen 'bengazhis' that were undertaken by joint leadership, then ONE MORE instance of this kind of deceit, just because it's same-party control of both branches.