566
tinitcd ~tatcs ~cnatc 
WASHINGTON, DC 20510 
July 7, 2017 
The Honorable Ajit V. Pai 
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission 
445 12th St. SW 
Washington, DC 20554 
Dear Chairman Pai: 
As you stated in your June 15 letter, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) previously suffered 
a "non-traditional DDoS attack," which prevented the public from commenting on ongoing proceedings. 
We therefore write to ensure the FCC is prepared for the upcoming July 12 Day of Action to protect 
strong net neutrality rules. 
On July 12, 2017, thousands of individuals will comment on Docket 17-108, a notice of proposed 
rulemaking that will roll back strong net neutrality protections, using the FCC's website or through a 
third-party. As we have stated previously, it is critical to the rulemaking and regulatory process that the 
public be able to take part without unnecessary technical or administrative burden. The FCC must be able 
to accept all comments filed to ensure that all voices are heard. 
Many individuals submitting comments do so through a third-party that connects to your comment filing 
system application programming interface (API). As you stated in your letter, on May 7-8, the API for 
your Electronic Communication Filing System (ECFS) was disabled by what you refer to as a "non­
traditional DDoS" attack, which left individuals unable to comment, even if they were not attempting to 
use your API. This was an unacceptable mistake that left Americans disenfranchised from your comment 
process. 
Due to the timing of the May 7-8 attack, which took place after a television host's call to action, we are 
concerned that a similar attack may be planned to disrupt the Day of Action. We encourage you to seek 
out and employ ECFS measures that allow for flexible scalability and alternative methods of filing. 
Additionally, if it is known internally that the ECFS will not be able to withstand an attack similar to the 
May 7-8 attack, we urge you to undertake temporary measures to ensure a functioning system on and 
around the anticipated surge of legitimate comments. In case the ECFS is disabled through some new type 
of attack, it is critical that Americans be able to file a comment using other means. We request that you 
make available an alternative mechanism for the public to file a comment including either through the 
FCC's own website and/or via a dedicated email address. 
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Please respond to our staffs by July 11 indicating 
that necessary precautions are being taken. For any questions or clarifications, please contact Anderson 
Heiman of Senator Wyden's staff and Melika Carroll of Senator Schatz's staff. 
Sincerely, ~u .... : ...... _ ........ 
Ron Wyden (/ Brian Schatz 
United States Senator United States Senator