Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday April 26 2020, @03:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the Shocked,-I-say.-Shocked! dept.

'Deficiencies' that broke FCC commenting system in net neutrality fight detailed by GAO:

Today marks the conclusion of a years-long saga that started when John Oliver did a segment on Net Neutrality that was so popular that it brought the FCC's comment system to its knees. Two years later it is finally near addressing all the issues brought up in an investigation from the General Accountability Office.

The report covers numerous cybersecurity and IT issues, some of which the FCC addressed quickly, some not so quickly and some it's still working on.

"Today's GAO report makes clear what we knew all along: the FCC's system for collecting public input has problems," Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told TechCrunch. "The agency needs to fully fix this mess because this is the way the FCC is supposed to take input from the public. But as this report demonstrates, we have real work to do."

The linked article chronicles several events and prevarications by the FCC and observations by critics. It then continues:

The final report is not much of a bombshell, since much of it has been telegraphed ahead of time. It's a collection of criticisms of an outdated system with inadequate security and other failings that might have been directed at practically any federal agency, among which cybersecurity practices are notoriously poor.

[...] The investigation indicates that the FCC, for instance, did not consistently implement security and access controls, encrypt sensitive data, update or correctly configure its servers, detect or log cybersecurity events, and so on. It wasn't always a disaster (even well-run IT departments don't always follow best practices), but obviously some of these shortcomings and cut corners led to serious issues like ECFS being overwhelmed.

More importantly, of the 136 recommendations made in the September report, 85 have been fully implemented now, 10 partially, and the rest are on track to be so.

[...] You can read the final GAO report here.

See also: Commission Impossible: How and why the FCC created net neutrality


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 26 2020, @05:42AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 26 2020, @05:42AM (#987208)

    What do you mean 'someday'? He was Associate General Council at Verizon back in 2001.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Sunday April 26 2020, @08:36AM (1 child)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 26 2020, @08:36AM (#987225) Journal

    He worked there before. He'll work there or somewhere similar when he's done, if there is enough of a country remaining for telecoms to even exist: Ajit Pai's work history [opensecrets.org] shows a stint at Verizon which spends seven figure sums on lobbying [opensecrets.org]. That's only referring to the officially reported money. He was also at lobbying firm from 2011 through 2012.

    In other words, he was and remains a lobbyist. Remember that when Pai was first appointed, he stated up front that he would continue, in practice, his work on behalf of the telcomns and aimed to elminate Net Neutrality [latimes.com]. The GAO's one-page summary has basically no information, except progress in ass-covering. The GAO's full 60-page report [gao.gov] has a little background information on pages 15 through 16.

    Web forms aren't difficult technologies. If the FCC had wanted them to work, they would have barely had to have lifted a finger to make it so. The fact that the site failed only reinforces that it was designed to filter out opposition of the lobbyists' chosen narrative.

    --
    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Sunday April 26 2020, @08:06PM

      by captain normal (2205) on Sunday April 26 2020, @08:06PM (#987346)

      It's al part of Trump's draining the swamp effort. Draining the lobbyists right into the Cabinet and the White House staff.

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.