Media Contact: 
Mark Wigfield, (202) 418-0253
mark.wigfield@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
FCC CIO STATEMENT ON DISTRIBUTED DENIAL-OF-SERVICE 
ATTACKS ON FCC ELECTRONIC COMMENT FILING SYSTEM
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WASHINGTON, May 8, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Chief Information 
Officer Dr. David Bray issued the following statement today regarding the cause of delays 
experienced by consumers recently trying to file comments on the FCC’s Electronic Comment 
Filing System (ECFS):
“Beginning on Sunday night at midnight, our analysis reveals that the FCC was subject to 
multiple distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDos).  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.  These actors were not attempting to file comments themselves; rather they made it 
difficult for legitimate commenters to access and file with the FCC.  While the comment system 
remained up and running the entire time, these DDoS events tied up the servers and prevented 
them from responding to people attempting to submit comments.  We have worked with our 
commercial partners to address this situation and will continue to monitor developments going 
forward.”  
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Office of Media Relations: (202) 418-0500
ASL Videophone: (844) 432-2275
TTY: (888) 835-5322
Twitter: @FCC
www.fcc.gov/office-media-relations
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes
official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).