Lawmakers Push FCC Chairman Pai for Answers on DDoS Non-Attack

Four Democratic representatives are pressing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for answers about the FCC's misidentification of a flood of network neutrality comments as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, specifically when he and others at the FCC found out about the inaccurate diagnosis. The Reps suggested that there were only two options: that Chairman Pai already knew it was not a DDoS attack but had not shared that information, or that he was ignorant of it, which they suggested would be "dereliction of duty."

The Aug 14 letter came from House Commerce committee ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Communications subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Reps Jerry McNerney (D-CA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI). “Given the significant media, public, and Congressional attention this alleged cyberattack received for over a year, it is hard to believe that the release of the IG’s Report was the first time that you and your staff realized that no cyberattack occurred,” the Reps wrote. “Such ignorance would signify a dereliction of your duty as the head of the FCC, particularly due to the severity of the allegations and the blatant lack of evidence. Therefore, we want to know when you and your staff first learned that the information the Commission shared about the alleged cyberattack was false.” The legislators said they were troubled that Chairman Pai had "allowed the public myth created by the FCC to persist and your misrepresentations [that it was a DDoS attack] to remain uncorrected for over a year."