Via Gizmodo: the FCC’s Office of Inspector General’s Report of Investigation in the allegations that multiple DDoS attacks disrupted the agency’s Electronic Comment Filing System last year.  The agency subsequently discussed the event with members of Congress. Coverage of the original claims and FCC Chair Ajit Pai’s comments here from EndGadget and here from ArsTechnica.

The IG’s conclusion? Statements that such attacks happened “are not accurate and raise questions about the accuracy of additional statements the FCC made about the event.” (p. 24). 

“The May 7-8, 2016 degradation of the FCC’s ECFS was not, as reported to the public and to Congress, the result of a DDoS attack. At best, the published reports were the result of a rush to judgment and the failure to conduct analyses needed to identify the true cause of the disruption to system availability. Rather than engaging in a concerted effort to understand better the systematic reasons for the incident, certain managers and staff at the Commission mischaracterized the event to the Office of the Chairman as resulting from a criminal act, rather than apparent shortcomings in the system. While several in the Commission were on notice that “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” was planning to air a segment that could generate a significant public response, that information did not reach the FCC IT group. Had such notice been provided, the IT group may have been able to take steps to ameliorate or prevent ECFS system degradation.” (p. 27).

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel responded to the report here.  

FCC Chair Ajit Pai has blamed former FCC CIO  David Bray (see FedScoop). 

Reaction from the press:  New York Magazine,