FCC says its specific plan to stop DDoS attacks must remain secret

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Nicholas Rigg)

The Federal Communications Commission has told members of Congress that it won’t reveal exactly how it plans to prevent future attacks on the public comment system.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Democratic lawmakers have been exchanging letters about a May 8 incident in which the public comments website was disrupted while many people were trying to file comments on Pai’s plan to dismantle net neutrality rules. The FCC says it was hit by DDoS attacks. The commission hasn’t revealed much about what it’s doing to prevent future attacks, but it said in a letter last month that it was researching “additional solutions” to protect the comment system.

Democratic Leaders of the House Commerce and Oversight committees then asked Pai what those additional solutions are, but they didn’t get much detail in return.