Hackers target U.S. FEC system, disrupting campaign finance disclosures before midterms

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

Oct 28, 2026

NEW YORK – The U.S. Federal Election Commission’s website has been targeted by a hacker or hackers, according to an email, disrupting the agency’s electronic filings system a week before the Nov. 3 elections.

The cyberattack comes as what are known as 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. It declined further comment on the outage.

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