Slashdot Mirror
FCC Says It Was Victim of Cyberattack After John Oliver Show (thehill.com)
On Sunday night, John Oliver urged his viewers to visit a website called "GoFCCYourself," which redirects users to a section of the FCC site where people can comment on the net neutrality proceeding. As a result, the FCC's site temporarily crashed. Now, it appears that the FCC is claiming its website has hit by a cyberattack late Sunday night. The Hill reports: "Beginning on Sunday night at midnight, our analysis reveals that the FCC was subject to multiple distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDos)," FCC chief information officer David Bray said in a statement Monday.
"These were deliberate attempts by external actors to bombard the FCC's comment system with a high amount of traffic to our commercial cloud host." The FCC's comments site went down in 2014 after the first time Oliver rallied his audience in support of net neutrality. In that case, it was widely believed the site went down because of the amount of traffic generated in the wake of Oliver's show. But Bray on Monday said that this recent instance was caused by a cyberattack and not a flood of people trying to give input. "These actors were not attempting to file comments themselves; rather they made it difficult for legitimate commenters to access and file with the FCC," he said.
The Federal /Communications/ Commission could not handle the volume of communications they were receiving?
Brilliant. And these people are supposed to be regulating the internet...
Remember when people used to call this phenomenon Slashdot Effect?
On a more serious note, is the Trump Administration now going to call Slashdot Effect an "attack," and if so, how is this not a sign of them ramping up the authoritarianism?
Finding God in a Dog
saying they were attacked instead of the obvious truth (that they were overwhelmed by demand) is the kind of thing I'd expect from the Iraqi ministry of information, not the US Government.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Like dupe or what?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Remember when people used to call this phenomenon Slashdot Effect?
On a more serious note, is the Trump Administration now going to call Slashdot Effect an "attack," and if so, how is this not a sign of them ramping up the authoritarianism?
the FCC is not the same thing as the Trump administration. They are independent and can't have more than 3/5 of their commissioners coming from the same party, and they are nominated for terms longer than the president's.
Doesn't mean they are competent. But it's not Trump.
lucm, indeed.
There's no way that John won't do a followup on their chicanery. If they try to silence *him*, then we need to be alarmed.
Public to FCC: We like Net Neutrality
FCC to Trump: A lot of people like Net Neutrality
Trump to Putin: Too much pushback from public on our plan to gut Net Neutrality.
Putin to Hackers: Kill their network.
Hackers to FCC: DoS DoS DoS DoS DoS DoS DoS DoS..
JO's show did a redirect. Why not just run the report and prove how much traffic there was.
FCC is making a joke of itself.
The FCC isn't saying accusing John Oliver of launching a cyber attack, they're same some third party launched an attack to stop John Oliver's audience from being able to leave comments.
Except that comedy news shows actually tend to be rather intelligent and their humor is often quite smart. And the shows I watch seem to make fun of politicians on all sides. It's entertaining as well as thought-provoking. Anything that can shed light on the dark places using humor (as in actual humor) is a very good thing indeed.
I think, though, that some powerful figures in this world really don't like humor. Maybe because humor itself dispels fear, and fear is what some are trying to pedal for whatever reason.
Ever think they only plan for the 1 percent, and never for the 99 percent?
FCC works for Russia.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
saying they were attacked instead of the obvious truth (that they were overwhelmed by demand) is the kind of thing I'd expect from the Iraqi ministry of information, not the US Government.
Waitaminute...
Didn't we just hear a raft of comments about how the left is evidence-based, using the scientific method in all that?
Something about the EPA replacing half the scientists on a policy board with industry experts?
How is labelling something an "obvious truth" with no evidence to the contrary any different from "there are no facts any more"?
The *very probable* explanation is that someone heard John Oliver's screed, realized that many people were going to post opinions to the FCC website, and DDOS'd the site to prevent these people from registering an opinion.
Of all the stupid things people say that are attacks on democracy, this one actually *is* an attack on democracy.
A DDOS to prevent public feedback is much more serious than the base issue, and might become more prevalent in the future.
Perhaps we should be discussing that.
checking out the comment section as suggested on the show for an automated botnet DDOS attack kind of just paints the FCC leadership as technoramouses (contraction of "technology ignoramous").
Just the kind of duffoons you want deciding on tech regulation policy.
"The Trump Administration - Preparing America for a Knowledge Freedom Economy"
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Maybe while John Oliver was telling people to submit their comments to the FCC en masse, some group that didn't want the people's opinion to get through to the FCC simultaneously launched a DDoS attack on their site...it's possible.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Conspiracy theory: the folks with the most to benefit from the removal of Net Neutrality orchestrated this immediately after seeing the John Oliver Show.
After this past Presidential election and being at ground zero of the John Ossoff battle in Georgia, the horses are out of the barn. We have gone over the tipping point. The milk has flowed under the bridge.
and considering the influence lobbying and money has on policy, elections are nothing but a feel good distraction for the electorate to let them feel like they are in control.
Trump has been wonderful for the ruling elite and his fellow billionaires - so much for electing the guy who was gonna drain that swamp! It's business as usual and then some.
Those of you who are calling the FCC incompetent for not knowing what a DDOS is vs cloud services... This is government in action.
The same people you want in charge of your medical care.
"These actors were not attempting to file comments themselves; rather they made it difficult for legitimate commenters to access and file with the FCC,"
And so it is important to note, as difficult as it has been for legitimate commenters, that the 180,000-plus comments that they have received, as of this writing, are presumably a small fraction of the actual number of people who attempted to comment on the issue.
"It's not that there's massive interest in this key issue, it's that a few individuals are simulating massive interest..."
Maybe you're convincing yourselves?
Requiem for the American Dream
The FCC is part of the executive branch, so yes, they answer to Trump.
Seriously, the new guy at the head of the FCC said there was never any example of ISPs depriotizing traffic to services in favor of their own stuff... Well the crap that happened with Netflix, where a few ISPs in the US throttled the access speed of Netflix to an unwatchable level, until they came to a paid "agreement" and suddenly, at the flip of a switch, Netflix loaded just fine... As if we are to believe they truly allocated "more" bandwidth to Netflix instead of just "giving it the normal amount of bandwidth it should've had in the first place".
Who stood to gain by blocking what were most likely pro net neutrality commenters from accessing the FCC site? And who has infrastructure available to mount a DDoS attack this soon following Oliver's broadcast? Without even needing to build or recruit a bot-net.
Lets see the ISPs' logs of all that incoming traffic and find the source.
Have gnu, will travel.
The FCC, immediately after Mr. Trump's election, cancelled their existing plans and awaited new dirction from Mr Pai. They' were designed to be independent, but aren't.
davecb@spamcop.net
I'm going to assume their website is running on a Pentium 90? Oh wait, then they'd have 184000.6547 comments.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
They intentionally misrepresented (aka lied) the facts, because we now live in a fact-free country. They are manipulating their data because the FCC chairman doesn't want net neutrality because he a shilling for Verizon et al.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I am aware of at least one group (there are probably others) who are sending emails asking their readers to submit comments. The email leads to a page controlled by them, which forwards comments to the FCC system. I still don't think that is malicious behavior.
The FCC should not attribute intent to actors unless they are truly malicious. Submitting comments is not malicious behavior, that is rather what they should be allowing.
I don't see very much true humor coming out the current administration, I must confess, which worries me.
Try to find a video of trump laughing. It is nearly impossible. IIRC there is just one clip out there and its barely a laugh.
What is up with that?
So. Basically any time this country tries to make itself heard to the government via legitimate avenues, they're going to claim "We got DDOSed!" and do whatever the fuck they want anyhow...
JOY!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
This administration doesn't care what you think. Whenever people speak out about something the government is doing, they deny people are upset and go ahead and do it anyway. Don't like the ACA replacement? Wait a couple of weeks, then say you've fixed it and rush it through before anyone reads it. Don't like the fact that they're selling the internet off to Comcast? It was just a DDOS attack. Nobody actually complained. This is so typical of Republicans...they claim the open market will fix everything, then they auction off a monopoly to the highest bidder.
Clearly these guys don't realize who their constituents are.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Check if you're living in a bubble, because Trump won, and his supporters are the winners.
Oh bleh. I applaud your seeming desire to hold the responsible people accountable for their actions, but consider who you're talking too - people have spent years now blaming Obama for everything that the justice department has done while he was in charge, everything that the spy agencies have done, everything that congress has done (or not done), etc. Remember that bit about Obama ordering a tap on Trump's phone? How long ago was that? You can't expect those same people to just turn around and recognize that the president isn't a king. That would require a remarkable capacity for doublethink.
"My man, Putin buddy ol' pal. I need a favor." Sounds like a load of horse shit to keep people from letting their voices be heard. Kind of ironic really; "denial of service"...wonder what that also sounds like, but legal? -_-
Doesn't mean they are competent. But it's not Trump.
Is that why they are massively backpedaling net neutrality at the behest of their new boss?
So tired of Hollywood self proclaimed saviors of anything they can come up with. As if they are so noble and full of knowledge. Don't tell me you understand anything about the common American. You live in a fantasy world, make more money in a year then I will in a lifetime. Stop trying to represent me.
Civic participation is now "cyberattack". How low can these organizations get?!
What's next? Democracy is bad for the country?!
After seeing the deliberately convoluted gauntlet you had to get through to leave a public comment - which is why Oliver set up gofccyourself.com to begin with - there's no reason any of us have to trust the FCC telling us this was a DDoS attack. As of this morning they've offered no proof. What's more likely is that after Oliver's show legitimate commenters used the tool to leave comments and flooded the site until it went down. The FCC wants the less informed public to see them as victims. All they're doing is blowing more smoke and running out the clock on public comment.
Maybe someone can enlighten me as to how the FCC can tell the difference between a DDoS attack and a large number of people legitimately trying to access their website?
When Jon Stewart was still at The Daily Show and Obama was just elected, he did a piece where, he made it clear to all viewers: "Our show is not over."
Many fans of the show thought that since The Daily Show had a definite editorial preference, Obama winning meant the end of their show. Yet that was never The Daily Show's gig. The whole point of The Daily Show was, and is, to skewer the inanities and peccadillos of our political class. That holds true regardless of who is in power.
All good political satire does this. All political regimes have inconsistencies, strange episodes, WTF moments, and recruits who go off on some personal obsession/vendetta/tangent and need to be reeled in (or worse). You don't have to like or dislike a leader or political philosophy to lampoon them.
The autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating Slashdot troll!
backpedaling net neutrality at the behest of their new boss?
If you look at the actual situation instead of focusing on Trump, you'd realize that ISP have basically stopped investing in their network because there's too many restrictions (studies show a drop of 30-40% in investment per year since Title II). Yes, it's a beautiful dream of having private corporations foot the bill for online freedom but that's not how capitalism works. Look at how well making things equal worked for the USSR, or how it helped Venezuela when the governement ended up deciding how much flat screen TV should cost.
Pretty much every week people on Slashdot get their panties in a bunch over Comcast not bringing fiber to such or such neighborhood or Google pulling the plug on expansion plans for Google Fiber. Well that's the price to pay if you want to bask in the glorious warmth of net neutrality. Fire up your 300-baud modem and have at it.
lucm, indeed.
That wouldn't be a problem if people elected honest people to POTUS and Congress. As well as said people being backed by news organizations that are having a huge fallout of sexual harassment from not only it's CEO but several large name on air personalities like Fox.
It always amaze me how there's a double standard when it comes to sexual harassment stories. Every accusation against Trump or Fox News is automatically believed, but accusations against serial offenders like Bill Clinton or against people like Al Gore or Assange are "conspiracies".
I mean, the Clinton stuff is of epic proportions - not only the rapes but also the cover-up, from burning women's pets alive to getting them fired then investigated by the IRS for "driving a nice car while having no income" - and yet what freak people out is alleged unpleasant behaviors and comments from private citizens.
Don't get me wrong, I personally think Bill O'Reilly is a piece of shit and whether the accusations are true or not I'm delighted to see him shamed publicly. But really, the hypocrisy in those matters is just unbelievable.
lucm, indeed.
Bill Maher has shifted to the left and embraced reality
Here's Bill Maher "reality":
Basically, they’re having a family and they’re keeping the mother in jail because she won’t conform to what society feels should be the perfect American family.
That quote is how Bill Maher reacted to a female teacher that was sent to prison for having "an affair" with her 12 years old student.
lucm, indeed.
How's life in the hypocrite lane?
As a general rule, I tend to not take advice from the guy who 'failed', I can make a couple of guesses as to why you were involved in failed projects
Make all the guesses, rules and SIGHs you want; until you learn how money works they're not worth much.
Given the quick evolution of technology and the explosive growth in storage and computing resources, making an "up front investment" is about as clever as building an airport on a piece of land you don't own. By the time your 3-5 years of depreciation have run, your clever "up front" planning will be as accurate and relevant as an horoscope. Meanwhile, someone who opted to put IT infrastructure in the "services" column has paid exactly for what they have consumed and left the guessing game of capacity planning to the cloud vendor.
By the way, just the fact that you bring up "TCO" shows that you're playing bullshit bingo with bingo cards printed 15 years ago. Time to upgrade your frame of reference, pal.
lucm, indeed.
you'd realize that ISP have basically stopped investing in their network because there's too many restrictions
Ahhh yes, good citizen. Belief in our bullshit will be rewarded.
Pretty much every week people on Slashdot get their panties in a bunch over Comcast not bringing fiber to such or such neighborhood or Google pulling the plug on expansion plans for Google Fiber.
Every week on Slashdot people also say it's cold outside so global warming is a myth. This is exactly the same fallacy at work here. There is nothing in net neutrality restrictions that has any impact on the build out of this network. Remember with net neutrality principles in play was how our networks were built out in the first place. With net neutrality "restrictions" in play we still kept hearing about the grand race for 5G, and carriers falling over each other to one-up the competition where it financially makes sense.
Removing "restrictions" which were in place in principle when most of the networks were built in the first place will not make unattractive investments any more attractive. But keep thinking the way you're thinking citizen. Compliance will be rewarded.
I'm surprised they mentioned the attack at all, since it's so in their favor.
This is a great way to register less comments form the public.
It wouldn't surprise me if in the future in similar situations we will get the same story. "Sorry you couldn't comment.. DDOS.. what can we do".
Cyberattacks could become the new reason for throwing away the rulebook, like with childporn/fraud.