Chairman Pai Response Regarding Alleged DDOS Attacks on FCC Comment Filing System

On Dec 11, 2017, Reps Jerry McNerney (D-CA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressing disappointment at the Chairman's failure to provide documentation relating to the May 7, 2017 alleged distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). They cited requests for documents at two separate FCC oversight hearings and said, "Given your high regard for transparency, we would expect that you would have disclosed to us by now the requested documents or an explanation of technical or legal prohibitions for your refusal to do so." 

On Oct 10, 2018, Chairman Pai responded by saying, "As I indicated when you made your initial request, I could not commit to a document production absent a consultation with our legal staff...I have since been advised by our Office of General Counsel that many of the materials you are requesting are non-public and confidential, because they contain personally identifiable information or information about the FCC's information security practices...Indeed, last month, the US District Court for the District of Columbia in the Prechtel decision recognized that these documents contained sensitive information....As a result, before the Commission could consider sharing these documents, I would need an official letter from the full Committee clearly describing the scope of the material that is being requested as well as the methods that would be used to protect the confidentiality of this information."