The Federal Election Commission took its filing system offline after a reported breach attempt
The Federal Election Commission took its electronic filing system offline after a reported attempt to breach its systems, interrupting new campaign-finance disclosures a week before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. On Tuesday night, the agency said it had identified the issue and was implementing a fix; it has not said who was behind the attempt or whether data was compromised. The outage does not affect voting.
More context
The Federal Election Commission’s electronic filing system remained offline early Wednesday after the agency shut down public-facing services following a reported attempt to breach its systems, disrupting campaign-finance disclosures a week before the Nov. 3 midterms. An FEC electronic filings official told campaign compliance firms in an email obtained by Reuters that a “bad actor” was attempting to breach the systems. By Tuesday night, the agency said it had pinpointed the problem and was working to resolve it. It has not disclosed who may have been responsible, whether access was obtained or whether information was exposed. New reports cannot be filed, and the FEC Notify service for alerts on incoming reports is also offline. Previously filed reports remain searchable. Ballot administration is unaffected by the disruption; the FEC does not administer elections.
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Reporting
- Politico — Hackers attempted to access national campaign finance systems 1 week before midterms - POLITICO
- Newsweek — Federal Elections Commission Offline After Hacking Attempt: Report - Newsweek
- CNBC — Hackers target FEC as campaign money system goes dark before midterms
- NBC News — Hackers target FEC system, disrupting campaign finance disclosures
- securityboulevard.com — Hacking Attempt Disrupts FEC Campaign Finance Filings Ahead of Midterms - Security Boulevard
- techtimes.co.uk — FEC Shuts Down Filing System After Hack Attempt, Leaving Voters in the Dark on Campaign Money
Verifier’s note
Politico reports that the FEC shut down filing systems after attempted access, and the other listed publishers also report the outage and reported hacking attempt shortly before the midterms. NewsCord is an automated aggregation rather than direct publisher reporting.