'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 It's a collection of criticisms of an outdated system with inadequate security and other failings that might have been directed at practically any federal agency, among which cybersecurity practices are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.
See also: Commission Impossible: How and why the FCC created net neutrality
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The Federal Communications Commission has scheduled an April 25 vote to restore net neutrality rules similar to the ones introduced during the Obama era and repealed under former President Trump.
"After the prior administration abdicated authority over broadband services, the FCC has been handcuffed from acting to fully secure broadband networks, protect consumer data, and ensure the Internet remains fast, open, and fair," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said today. "A return to the FCC's overwhelmingly popular and court-approved standard of net neutrality will allow the agency to serve once again as a strong consumer advocate of an open Internet."
[...]
In a filing with the FCC, Turner wrote that "ISPs have been incredibly bullish about the future of their businesses precisely because of the network investments they are making" and that the companies rarely, if ever, mention the impact of FCC regulation during calls with investors."We believe that the ISPs' own words to their shareholders, and to industry analysts through channels governed by the SEC, should be afforded significantly more weight than evidence-free tropes, vague threats, dubious aggregate capital expenditure tallies, or nonsensical math jargon foisted on the Commission this docket or elsewhere," Turner wrote.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 26 2020, @04:37AM (6 children)
I seriously thought the system was broken by design. The FCC really didn't want to hear from Americans, unless those Americans were wealthy investors who saw things Ajit Pai's way.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Sunday April 26 2020, @04:56AM (4 children)
I think you mean the big tel-coms and isps that Pia played along wth.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday April 26 2020, @05:09AM (3 children)
Or maybe the big tel-coms and isps that Pai expects to be hired by someday...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 26 2020, @05:42AM (2 children)
What do you mean 'someday'? He was Associate General Council at Verizon back in 2001.
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Sunday April 26 2020, @08:36AM (1 child)
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
It's al part of Trump's draining the swamp effort. Draining the lobbyists right into the Cabinet and the White House staff.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday April 26 2020, @05:28AM
Yeah, that was my first reaction. If they really wanted to hear from us, they would have made a way, not excuses.