INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The FCC has come clean on the fact that a purported hack of its comment system last year never actually took place, after a report from its
inspector general found a lack of evidence supporting the idea
Chairman Ajit Pai blamed the former chief information officer and the Obama administration for providing &inaccurate information about this
incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people.
The semi-apology and finger-pointing are a disappointing conclusion to the
year-long web of obfuscation that the FCC has woven
Since the first moment it was reported that there was a hack of the system, there have been questions about the nature, scale and response
to it that the FCC has studiously avoided even under direct Congressional questioning.
It was so galling to everyone looking for answers
that the GAO was officially asked to look into it
The letter requesting the office help at the time complained that the FCC had ¬ released any records or documentation that would allow
for confirmation that an attack occurred, that it was effectively dealt with, and that the FCC has begun to institute measures to thwart
future attacks and ensure the security of its systems.& That investigation is still going on, but one conducted by the FCC own OIG resulted
in the report Pai cites.
The former CIO, David Bray, was the origin of the theory, but emails obtained by American Oversight in June show
that evidence for it and a similar claim from 2014 were worryingly thin
Nevertheless, the FCC has continuously upheld the idea that it was under attack and has never publicly walked it back.
Pai statement was
issued before the OIG publicized its report, as one does when a report is imminent that essentially says your agency has been clueless at
best or deliberately untruthful at worst, and for more than a year
To be clear, the report is still unpublished, though its broader conclusions are clear from Pai statement
In it he slathers Bray with the partisan brush and asserts that the report exonerates his office:
I am deeply disappointed that the FCC
former [CIO], who was hired by the prior Administration and is no longer with the Commission, provided inaccurate information about this
incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people
This is completely unacceptable
I&m also disappointed that some working under the former CIO apparently either disagreed with the information that he was presenting or had
questions about it, yet didn''t feel comfortable communicating their concerns to me or my office.
On the other hand, I&m pleased that this
report debunks the conspiracy theory that my office or I had any knowledge that the information provided by the former CIO was inaccurate
and was allowing that inaccurate information to be disseminated for political purposes.
Although an evaluation of Pai &conspiracy theory&
idea must wait until the report is public, it hard to square this pleasure of the chairman with the record
At any time in the last year, especially after Bray had departed, it would have been, if not simple, then at least simpler than maintaining
its complex act of knowledgelessness, to say that the CIO had made an error and there was no attack
Nothing like that has come out of the agency.
One must assume the agency had reviewed the data
Bray left a long time ago; why did these subordinates of his fail to speak out afterwards If the FCC had its doubts, why did it not say so
instead of risking withering criticism by avoiding the question for months on end When and why did Pai or his office develop the idea that
the report was inaccurate, if not when it was being disseminated These aren''t trivial questions.
Representatives rip FCC Chairman Pai
‘lack of candor& and double down on net neutrality questions
Some of the FCC reticence to speak out may have even been explained as part
of the request by the inspector general not to discuss the investigation
That an easy out, at least for some of the time! But we haven''t heard that, that I know of at least, and it doesn''t explain the rest of
the agency silence or misleading statements.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel urged everyone to move on with a quickness:
The Inspector
General Report tells us what we knew all along: the FCC claim that it was the victim of a DDoS attack during the net neutrality proceeding
What happened instead is obvious—millions of Americans overwhelmed our online system because they wanted to tell us how important internet
openness is to them and how distressed they were to see the FCC roll back their rights
It unfortunate that this agency energy and resources needed to be spent debunking this implausible claim.
Although it true that pushing
forward is a good idea, some accountability and an explanation for the last year of mystery would also be welcome.
Because it wasn''t a
hack, it seems that the comment-filing system, though recently revamped, needs yet another fresh coat of paint to handle the kind of volume
it saw during the net neutrality repeal
Plans for that are underway, Pai wrote
The GAO investigation regarding fraud in the comment system will no doubt affect those plans.
I&ve contacted the FCC and its Office of the
Inspector General for more information, including the report itself, which is published at the office discretion
I will update this post when I hear back.
