Hill Democrats Question FCC’s Cybersecurity Protocols

Congressional Democrats are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to review its cybersecurity protocols following a May cyberattack that knocked the agency’s commenting system offline, and ahead of online activism in support of net neutrality.

Ranking House Democrats on two committees —Commerce and Oversight, as well as their relevant subcommittees — first sent a letter to the three FCC commissioners on June 26, expressing their concerns about the agency’s cyber preparedness and the attack’s impact on net neutrality comments. “Recent events have raised questions about the security of the FCC’s network, and we have serious concerns that the FCC’s website failures deprive the public of opportunities to comment on net neutrality — an issue that affects everyone who uses the internet,” the six Democrats wrote. The same six Democrats followed up with a letter to the Government Accountability Office on July 7 that asked the office to examine the FCC’s “information technology and information security practices.”