The FCC Is Full of Shit. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission fired back against negative coverage of its response to a public records request filed by Gizmodo in May. Media reports claiming that the FCC lacks written documentation of its analysis of the May 7 8 non traditional DDo. S attack that took place against our electronic comment filing system are categorically false, FCC spokesman Brian Hart said in a press release. Harts statements were circulated to reporters shortly after Gizmodo reached out to the agency regarding unpublished comments by Senator Ron Wyden, who, in an email, had expressed disapproval over the agencys handling of the alleged cyberattacks that overwhelmed its public comment website this spring. The FCC website faced a barrage of traffic on May 8 after comedian John Oliver, host of HBOs Last Week Tonight, asked his viewers to submit comments to the agency in support of Obama era rules enforcing net neutrality. The regulations make it illegal for ISPs to block or slow traffic to certain websites and services. In his statement, Hart blasted what he called inaccurate and misleading reports about the alleged cyberattack. On Wednesday, Gizmodo reported the agencys refusal to release more than 2. We provide excellent essay writing service 247. Enjoy proficient essay writing and custom writing services provided by professional academic writers. President Trumps proposed wall along the USMexico border is stupid for many reasons. But one of the most obvious reasons is that its really easy to get over. Freedom of Information Act FOIA request. Further, the FCC stated that it had no records related to an analysis being performed on its systems during the attack, seemingly contradicting previous remarks from one of its staff the following day. Despite Harts statement Thursday, Gizmodos report did not claim that the FCC lacks written documentation of the attackonly that the FCC had stated, in writing, that it held no records of any kind related to the so called analysis cited by its official in the immediate aftermath of the incident. According to a letter later written by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the peak activity triggering the comment systems unavailability began on May 7, at around 1. Taken at its word, the FCCs statement means that for a period of about 15 hours, no one in the agencys IT department wrote a single email or memo, nor did they. Noregistration upload of files up to 250MB. Not available in some countries. The Associated Press delivers indepth coverage on todays Big Story including top stories, international, politics, lifestyle, business, entertainment, and more. Latest trending topics being covered on ZDNet including Reviews, Tech Industry, Security, Hardware, Apple, and Windows. ET. On May 8, at about 2pm, the agency published a statement in which Chief Information Officer Dr. David Bray said, Beginning on Sunday night at midnight, our analysis reveals that the FCC was subject to multiple distributed denial of service attacks DDo. S. Emphasis oursOn May 2. Gizmodo filed its FOIA request, a section of which sought out copies of any records related to the FCC analysis cited in Dr. Brays statement that concluded a DDo. S attack had taken place. In a letter on Wednesday, the agency responded IT staff have confirmed there are no records responsive to this portion of the request. The analysis referred to stemmed from real time observation and feedback by Commission IT staff and did not result in written documentation. Taken at its word, the FCCs statement means that for a period of about 1. IT department wrote a single email or memo, nor did they take down any notes of any kind about the cyberattack that, according to Chairman Pai, caused a malicious 3. The result, he said, was that new human users were blocked from visiting the comment filing system. Gizmodo did not simply request a copy of the analysis referenced by Dr. Bray, however citing the federal law, it had asked the agency to turn over any records even related to the analysis of which Bray spoke. In its statement on Thursday, FCC spokesman Brian Hart said, Given that the Commissions IT professionals were in the midst of addressing the attack on May 8, that analysis was not reduced to writing. However, subsequent analysis, once the incident had concluded, was put in writing. Presumably, this subsequent analysis is in someway related to information that the agencys employees would have gleaned while being otherwise too engrossed in cyberwarfare to jot anything down. Prior to the statement by FCCs Hart on Thursday afternoon, Senator Ron Wyden had stated in an email that the agencys response to Gizmodos FOIA request raised legitimate questions about whether the agency is being truthful when it claims a DDo. S attack knocked its commenting system offline. The Oregon senator said it was critical that the agency produce evidence of the attack, if only so independent experts could verify and learn something from it. He continued If the FCC did suffer a DDo. S attack and yet created no written materials about it, that would be deeply irresponsible and cast doubt on how the FCC could possibly prevent future attacks. On the other hand, if FCC is playing word games to avoid responding to FOIA requests, it would clearly violate Chairman Ajit Pais pledge to increase transparency at the FCC. So as not to mislead or confuse the FCC, Gizmodo elaborated at some length about what it meant when it said it was requesting records related to the attack Gizmodo seeks all responsive records regardless of format, medium, or physical characteristics. Quiet Company We Are All Where We Belong Rar. September. Shoosmiths corporate partner Steve Barnett, assisted by solicitor Rebecca Chafer, advised rapidlygrowing mens online grooming business Cornerstone. Greenpeace will never stop fighting for a greener, healthier world for our oceans, forests, food, climate, and democracyno matter what forces stand in our way. In conducting your search, please understand the terms records, communications, and documents in their broadest sense, to include any written, typed, recorded, graphic, printed, or audio material of any kind. We seek records of any kind, including electronic records, audiotapes, videotapes, and photographs, as well as letters, emails, facsimiles, telephone messages, voice mail messages and transcripts, notes, or minutes of any meetings, telephone conversations or discussions. Our request includes any attachments to these records. No category of material should be omitted from search, collection, and production. Whats more, the records related to Brays so called analysis were only one of six categories of material sought. The request further included any agency emails referencing DDo. S, astroturfing, spam, and net neutrality, in addition to any related calendar entries, visitor logs, meeting minutes, orders, memoranda, or written views concerning the FCCs comment system. Uk Border Agency Landing Card Pdf Creator' title='Uk Border Agency Landing Card Pdf Creator' />Also requested were all records related to a May 9th letter authored by Senators Wyden and Brian Schatz regarding the attack. Yet, somehow the FCC could not produce a single document from the day the cyberattack is said to have occurred. It released one email from a reporter asking for a comment about Schatz and Wydens letter. Another short one concerning the same letter between two FCC staffers was entirely redacted, because its disclosure would, the agency said, expose its decision making process in such a way as to discourage candid discussion within the agency and thereby undermine the agencys ability to perform its functions. The FCC believes that the public would react poorly if details emerged about how it planned to respond to the senators questions. The FCCs refusal to produce records of any true relevance reflects pressure from the agencys upper echelon to limit the disclosure of information about the incident to a handful of public statements. Its justifications for concealing more than 2. FOIA records run the gamut of the federal statutes permitted exemptions many of the documents are said to contain either trade secrets or privileged and confidential information. Others were withheld because doing otherwise, the FCC asserted, might reveal discussion of the Commissions IT infrastructure and countermeasures. Although the law requires the agencys attorneys to review each document individually, and only redact the portions of the text that truly deserve to be withheld, more than 9. It would be hard for a government agency to do more to give off the impression that it was engaged in a cover up. Thats troubling given the rise of questions over the FCCs integrity. In fact, reports emerging in the wake of the cyberattack suggest that the FCC public comment system is already wholly compromised. Spambots are said to have inundated the website with fake letters, according to multiple sources. Hundreds of thousands of identical messages can be viewed theresome containing the names and addresses of Americans who, when contacted by reporters, have claimed that their identities mustve been stolen.