Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler says that there was no 2014 cyberattack meant to overwhelm the agency's comment system during the net neutrality debate, as claimed by a former agency IT official in emails recently published by Gizmodo. The Gizmodo story says that in 2017, after the agency claimed to have experienced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) taking down its comment system, agency IT chief David Bray told the media that there had been a similar attack in 2014 — and that Wheeler had decided to keep the matter quiet for fear of copycat attacks. 

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation, of Shenzhen, China (“ZTE Corporation”) and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd. of Hi-New Shenzhen, China (“ZTE Kangxun”) (collectively, “ZTE”) has agreed to severe additional penalties and compliance measures to replace the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) denial order imposed as a result of ZTE’s violations of its March 2017 settlement agreement.

The Government Accountability Office is investigating the Federal Communications Commission’s claim that its commenting system suffered a distributed denial-of-service attack during a controversial debate over repealing net neutrality rules in May 2017. The alleged DDoS attack, which slowed but did not completely disable the commenting site, came after comedian John Oliver urged his viewers to submit comments opposing the net neutrality rewrite favored by the Trump administration. The timing has led some critics to suggest the massive increase in traffic to the FCC commenting site may have

Fresh concerns about digital privacy and security are budding in Washington amid revelations of potential surveillance activity in the DC region, causing some lawmakers to demand action from the Trump administration. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is demanding action from the Federal Communications Commission and private phone companies to better protect Americans from being spied on or tracked. But he accused FCC Chairman Ajit Pai of “stonewalling” his pleas for action.  “Mr. Pai and the FCC are dragging their feet here,” Sen Wyden said. “They are stonewalling. They are ducking.

A response to FCC Emails Show Agency Spread Lies to Bolster Dubious DDoS Attack Claims.

Facebook has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including Huawei, a manufacturing giant that has a close relationship with China’s government. The agreements, which date to at least 2010, gave private access to some user data to Huawei, a telecommunications equipment company that has been flagged by American intelligence officials as a national security threat, as well as to Lenovo, Oppo and TCL.

The Federal Communications Commission wants to prohibit US companies from using its Universal Service Fund (USF) to buy equipment that could pose "a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or the communications supply chain." That's broadly understood to mean network infrastructure made by China's Huawei and ZTE, two companies that the largest American carriers stopped working with in the US almost six years ago due to pressure from Congress. Nonetheless, US carriers are pushing back against the FCC's latest proposal.

As it wrestled with accusations about a fake cyberattack, the Federal Communications Commission purposely misled several news organizations, choosing to feed journalists false information, while at the same time discouraging them from challenging the agency’s official story.

Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA) said he is concerned that companies like Huawei and ZTE, which government officials believe are a threat to national security, might have been able to get user data from Facebook after it was revealed the company had data-sharing partnerships with roughly 60 device makers. “Does our personal info reside on a server in China? I think Facebook owes us that answer,” Ranking Member Warner said.