FCC VULNERABILITIES DISCOVERED

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Friday urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take steps to boost the security of its comment submission process after a review revealed dozens of cyber vulnerabilities.

In a report compiled by the GAO, which was originally finalized in September but made public Friday, the agency detailed 136 recommendations for how the FCC could improve its Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS).

This system is used by the public to propose changes to regulations, and was overwhelmed in May 2017 following a surge in comments being submitted, temporarily disrupting the electronic comment system.

The GAO undertook its review of the FCC’s security for the ECFS following this incident after requests from numerous Democratic lawmakers.

“GAO identified program and control deficiencies in the core security functions related to identifying risk, protecting systems from threats and vulnerabilities, detecting and responding to cyber security events, and recovering system operations,” the government watchdog wrote in the report.

The GAO gave credit to the FCC for addressing 63 percent of its recommendations since September, but warned that the agency was at risk until all the identified problems are dealt with.

“Until FCC fully implements these recommendations and resolves the associated deficiencies, its information systems and information will remain at increased risk of misuse, improper disclosure or modification, and loss,” the GAO warned.