Hackers target US FEC system, disrupting campaign finance disclosures days before midterms

CYBERSECURITY. Silhouettes of laptop users are seen next to a screen projection of binary code are seen in this picture illustration created on March 28, 2018.

Dado Ruvic/Reuters

The outage prevents organizations from filing the Federal Election Commission's 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which show how much political groups and others are spending on specific races

AT A GLANCE

• The US Federal Election Commission's electronic filing system was hacked, disrupting services just a week before the November 3 elections.
• The outage prevents organizations from filing mandatory spending reports, impacting transparency in political spending during a record-breaking election cycle.
• Despite the disruption, it does not affect voters' ability to cast ballots, and efforts are underway to restore the filing system.

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NEW YORK, USA – The US Federal Election Commission’s website was targeted by a hacker or hackers, according to an email seen by Reuters, disrupting the agency’s electronic filings system a week before the November 3 elections.

The hack comes as so-called super PACs and dark money groups spend record sums in the final days of the races. The elections will determine whether President Donald Trump’s Republicans maintain their majorities in Congress for the next two years.

In a statement, the FEC said, “At this time, the FEC’s electronic filing system is currently offline and our IT staff are actively working to restore service.” The FEC, which tracks the spending of candidates and political committees, said users could still search the website for past reports. A status message posted by the FEC said its filing system had been down since around 10 pm ET on Monday (0200 GMT; 10:00 am Tuesday Philippine time).

Around 8 pm ET on Tuesday (0000 GMT; 8:00 am Wednesday Philippine time), a new status message said the issue “has been identified and a fix is being implemented.” The FEC did not immediately return a message seeking comment and a notice on its website said its filing system remained offline.

The FEC does not play a role in administering US elections and the outage should have no effect on voters’ ability to cast ballots.

The outage does prevent organizations from filing the FEC’s 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which show how much political groups and others are spending on specific races.

“I’ve never seen this in 26 years,” said Steven Mele, president and CEO at political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group.

The FEC posted the notice to its website after campaign finance officers could not file mandatory reports late on Monday.

“We have a bad actor attempting to breach FEC systems. As a result, we’ve had to temporarily shut down our web facing services,” an FEC electronic filings officer said in the email to several campaign compliance firms that night.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI both referred questions to the FEC.

The midterms are now the most expensive US election in history with roughly $11.21 billion spent on advertising and future reservations so far, according to political ad tracker AdImpact. They have surpassed the previous record set in the 2024 elections when $11.2 billion was spent on all races, including $3.2 billion on the presidential race between Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris, AdImpact said.

Much of the spending is being driven by super PACs, which can accept unlimited amounts of money from wealthy individuals and corporations and spend as much as they want on campaigns with few restrictions.

The sums being spent in recent weeks are staggering as Democrats gain ground in several Republican strongholds.

Super PACs and dark money groups have spent an average of over $50 million per day over the last week, said Brendan Glavin, research director at nonpartisan campaign watchdog group OpenSecrets. More than $250 million in spending was reported on October 20 alone, he added.

“It’s a big deal,” he said of the outage, which leaves voters in the dark until the filing system is back online.

“These are the key reports that tell us what is happening,” Glavin said. “In the last days of the election this is the only way for us to keep track of where the money’s being spent” and who’s spending it. – Rappler.com