back to article FCC blames DDoS for weekend web lockout

Problems faced by consumers hoping to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission over the weekend were caused by a denial of service attack, the US government agency admits. In a statement, FCC chief information officer Dr David Bray blamed issues with the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) on …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    How convenient...

    Wouldn't have anything to do with John Oliver and gofccyourself.com

    would it ?

    1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

      Re: How convenient...

      "Wouldn't have anything to do with John Oliver and gofccyourself.com would it ?"

      "The uploader has not made this video available in your country."

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ISPs...

    don't want comments on net neutrality.

    1. Sonny Jim

      Re: ISPs...

      I was just thinking, who has access to a vast amount of bandwidth and wants to make sure that net neutrality is squashed so they can kill Netflix and push their own streaming services?

      TBH it sounds more likely than 'John Oliver viewers crashed the servers'

  3. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Shouldn't they talk to their security partners as well?

  4. handleoclast
    Coat

    Obvious ploy

    If we enforced net neutrality then ISPs would commit an offence if they blocked DDoS attacks (since net neutrality would require that all packets must be treated equally). Therefore net neutrality is a silly idea, as that DDoS attack on our very own site just happened, fortuitously, to demonstrate. QED.

    BTW, Ivan, the money has been paid into your Swiss bank account. Thanks for the DDoS attack.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Obvious ploy

      "all packets must be treated equally"...

      Yeah... and all people must also be treated equally...

      But that doesn't stop us from locking up criminals !

    2. Kane
      Happy

      Re: Obvious ploy

      "all packets must be treated equally"

      But some packets must be treated more equally than others.

      1. big_D Silver badge

        Re: Obvious ploy

        There is nothing wrong with treating different types of traffic differently.

        Voice and video calls need higher priority than most other traffic, streaming audio and video probably next up, web traffic doesn't need that much priority, email even lower...

        What net neutrality is really about is not prioritising one type of voice traffic over another or, often, not counting anISP's own and "partner" services against data caps, whereas others, who can't / don't partner with them are disadvantaged.

        1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

          Re: Obvious loophole

          ...will be the invention of the DTP/IP protocol - a special high priority network layer that can carry DIRECTV over heavily throttled AT&T wires. No neutrality conflict here. Anyone can create high priority DTP/IP streams if they're willing to pay the protocol licensing and trademark fees.

  5. Palpy

    Tee hee -- DDoS is similar in some ways --

    -- to what could happen to content providers who get on the bad side of a large ISP, right? Consumers see the content from those sites slow to a crawl. Then stop. Until the content provider pays baksheesh to the ISP.

    The corporate propagandists will probably call these payments a "purely voluntary alternative revenue stream", and funnel some of the money into Ajit Pai's campaign war chest as he maneuvers for elective office.

    Thanks, Ajit! <3

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We wouldn't accept an election, if most polling places had been closed down and no votes been cast, so if the FCC is DDOS'd they can't proceed with their proceedings, as the public hasn't had a chance to comment. Thus if the DDOS continues until Trumps term is up, net neutrality is saved.

    Right?

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