Hackers target US election agency, blocking spending reports a week before midterms
The Federal Election Commission's electronic filing system is offline a week before the midterm elections. A hacker is trying to breach the agency's systems, according to an email seen by Reuters.
Graphic: TERRA WORLD NEWS (own graphic based on the sources listed)
The U.S. Federal Election Commission has taken its electronic filing system offline after an apparent hacking attempt. A status notice from the agency said the system had been down since around 10 p.m. ET on Monday. "We have a bad actor attempting to breach FEC systems," an FEC electronic filings officer wrote in an email to several compliance firms that was seen by Reuters. The agency said only that its IT staff were working to restore service, and no restoration time had been given by late Tuesday. It is not known who is behind the attempt.
Voting on Nov. 3 is not affected: the FEC does not run elections but oversees campaign finance. However, campaigns and political groups are currently unable to file the mandatory 24-hour and 48-hour reports on spending in individual races. Past reports remain searchable online. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency referred questions to the FEC, and the FBI did not immediately comment.
"I've never seen this in 26 years," said Steven Mele of compliance firm MBA Consulting Group. "These are the key reports that tell us what is happening," said Brendan Glavin of transparency group OpenSecrets. According to AdImpact, the midterms are already the most expensive U.S. election ever, with about $11.21 billion in advertising spending and reservations.