Democratic senators to press FCC on DDoS attack Presented by CTIA

With help from Margaret Harding McGill, Ashley Gold and Nancy Scola

FIRST IN MT: DEMOCRATIC SENATORS TO PRESS FBI ON FCC DDOS ATTACK — Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz, Al Franken, Ron Wyden, Patrick Leahy and Ed Markey plan to write to the FBI this morning asking for a status update on the alleged distributed denial-of-service attack that hit the FCC’s electronic comment filing system on May 8, Ashley reports.


— Noting that the FCC described the incident as “deliberate attempts by external actors to bombard the FCC’s comment system with a high amount of traffic” which “made it difficult for legitimate commenters to access and file with the FCC,” the senators ask the FBI to “prioritize this matter and investigate the source of this attack.”

— “Any cyberattack on a federal network is very serious,” they write in the letter, the text of which was shared with MT. “This particular attack may have denied the American people the opportunity to contribute to what is supposed to be a fair and transparent process, which in turn may call into question the integrity of the FCC’s rulemaking proceedings.” The senators request that the FBI brief them by June 23.

— Some net neutrality advocates have expressed skepticism about the FCC’s DDoS explanation and called for proof of the cyberattack.

MORE BLACKBURN MEETINGS ON PRIVACY BILL — Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is set to meet with libertarian group TechFreedom about her BROWSER Act today. The measure would require both online platforms like Google and Facebook as well as ISPs to get consumer permission before sharing their sensitive data with advertisers. “We appreciate Chairwoman Blackburn’s effort to address privacy concerns created by Title II reclassification of broadband, and look forward to working with her to make sure that in trying to protect consumers she doesn’t unintentionally have the opposite effect,” said a TechFreedom spokesman. The group wants to discuss the scope of the proposed opt-in policy, how the bill would affect competition between smaller and larger tech and telecom firms and how it could preempt state laws, he said.

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING and welcome to Morning Tech, where we can literally get on board with this. Send your tech and telecom tips to [email protected] and @liszhou. Catch the rest of the team’s contact info after Quick Downloads.

TRUMP: CALL ME MAYBE — “President Donald Trump has been handing out his cellphone number to world leaders and urging them to call him directly, an unusual invitation that breaks diplomatic protocol and is raising concerns about the security and secrecy of the U.S. commander in chief’s communications,” the AP reports. “Trump has urged leaders of Canada and Mexico to reach him on his cellphone, according to former and current U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the practice. Of the two, only Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken advantage of the offer so far, the officials said.”

BALLMER: ‘NADA” POLITICAL AMBITIONS — Don’t look for former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to run for office anytime soon. “No political ambitions of my own. Zero. Nada. None,” he said when pressed on the issue at Recode’s Code Conference on Tuesday. Ballmer also spoke about how tough it was for him to track down certain sets of government data and explained that this observation served as a key impetus for creating the website USAFacts. “How much does the government do for kids in need?” he said. “It was almost impossible to find this stuff.” Watch, here.

— LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen also said they have no political ambitions of their own, though they did address the issue of politics during their discussion at the Code Conference. “Silicon Valley is extremely left-wing. It’s extremely liberal. It’s very hard for a lot of people in the Silicon Valley to articulate the other side,” Andreessen said. “I think truth has become shorthand for things that people on the coasts believe. And fake news, or alternative facts, has become what people in the center believe.” Hoffman pushed back a bit on this sentiment. “You’ve got the President saying CNN is fake news,” he said. “You have the erosion of these kinds of institutions. We have to be able to talk.” Watch the full discussion, which also included talk of automation and the future of work, here.

LAPTOP BAN BACK-AND-FORTH — The U.S. government is not expanding a laptop ban on airlines to the EU for the time being, Pro Europe’s Cathy Buyck reports. “The Trump administration later said such a move remains ‘on the table’ as it examines intelligence about terrorist threats. European sources said the matter appeared closed for now after weeks of back-and-forth negotiations and panicked responses from airlines. ‘No ban,’ a European Commission official said after a conference call Tuesday between U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and two of his European counterparts. ‘Both sides have agreed to intensify technical talks and try to find a common solution.’”

SILICON VALLEY MUST-READS —

— Uber terminates Anthony Levandowski: Uber has fired Levandowski, the former Alphabet employee who’s at the center of contentious lawsuit between the two companies, The New York Times reports. Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car division, has alleged that Uber stole trade secrets for its self-driving car tech. … On the issue of Uber’s internal sexual harassment investigation: “Several current employees told The Wall Street Journal that they have hired personal attorneys. That isn’t uncommon in harassment probes, but the employees say they are especially intimidated by the probe being run by Mr. Holder.”

— Amazon stock price hits record high: Amazon stock reached an eye-opening price of $1,000 per share on Tuesday, Bloomberg reports. Analysts pointed to the company’s prominent foothold in global retail and cloud computing. The stock closed at nearly $997 a share at the end of the day.

INTERNET ASSOCIATION SAYS PTAB IN GOOD SHAPE — The tech trade group, in comments submitted to the USPTO, argues that the agency’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board should continue operating as is. “Low-quality patents continue to fuel litigious patent trolls and undermine every part of our economy – from the growing technology sector to mom-and-pop retail shops,” IA President Michael Beckerman said in a statement. “USPTO should be commended for its dedication to periodically reviewing PTAB procedures for effectiveness, but their own findings show there is no need for large scale, disruptive alterations to post-grant review at this time.”

TRANSITIONS — Per California Playbook: Buffy Wicks, the veteran Democratic grassroots organizer credited with helping to build the groundbreaking grassroots organization of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, has decided to jump into politics herself. On Tuesday, she formally announces her bid for an Assembly seat in one of California’s bluest legislative districts, the AD-15 seat in the East Bay, with a message to state Democrats.

— Ted Dean, most recently acting Assistant Secretary at the International Trade Administration at the Commerce Department, is Dropbox’s new head of policy. Dean played a key role in leading negotiations with the European Commission over Safe Harbor and the ultimate creation of the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield.

QUICK DOWNLOADS

Warner talks future of work: “This is the issue of our time. There are wide, wide swaths of our country that aren’t doing well. Economic insecurity is not going away,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), while speaking at the New Deal Ideas Summit in San Francisco, VentureBeat reports.

Crowdfunding for court: CrowdJustice, a startup that’s a “kickstarter for court cases” has seen some success backing cases in the UK and is expanding its efforts to the U.S., The Verge reports.

Apple’s first original TV show sets debut: Episodes of “Carpool Karaoke,” which is based off the popular James Corden “Late Late Show” segment, are expected to debut in August, The Verge reports.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Eric Engleman ([email protected], @ericengleman), Angela Greiling Keane ([email protected], @agreilingkeane), Nancy Scola ([email protected], @nancyscola), Margaret Harding McGill ([email protected], @margarethmcgill), Ashley Gold ([email protected], @ashleyrgold), Steven Overly ([email protected], @stevenoverly) and Li Zhou ([email protected], @liszhou)

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