The Latest in IT Security

Issues with the Federal Communications Commissions aging comment system likely led to it going down for several hours last week, a falter that gained wide attention as many associated it with a viral segment from John Olivers new HBO series calling for people to comment on the commissions controversial new net neutrality proposal. Though the FCC has not pinpointed an exact cause, it says that a certain database error that can cause the commenting system to freeze occurred in large numbers last week due to an increase in traffic. We do not have evidence to suggest it was a malicious attack or a nefarious activity, an FCC spokesperson tells The Verge. For now, its reasonable to believe that it was, as the FCC says, just an issue of a large increase in visitors triggering errors across its 17-year-old site.