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By Hollie Silverman
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The Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) electronic filing system was knocked offline following reported hacking attempts, disrupting a key campaign-finance disclosure system just one week before the November 3 midterm elections.
A hacker or hackers targeted the FEC’s systems, prompting the agency to temporarily shut down web-facing services, according to an email obtained by Reuters.
The electronic filing system had been unavailable since around 10 p.m. ET Monday, according to the FEC website.
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The FEC confirmed to Newsweek that its electronic filing system remained offline Tuesday but did not provide further details about the reported cyberattack.
"At this time, we can point to the status update posted to the FEC’s website that the electronic filing system is currently offline and our IT staff are actively working to restore service," Myles Martin, deputy press officer for the FEC, told Newsweek in an email Tuesday.
"The website search for FEC reports is not affected," Martin added.
Newsweek reached out to the White House and FBI by email Tuesday for comment.
Reuters reported that the outage prevents political organizations from electronically filing the FEC's 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, disclosures that provide information about spending on individual races during the final days before an election.
The agency has not publicly identified who may be responsible for the reported hacking attempts or said whether its systems were successfully breached or information was accessed.
The disruption comes at a particularly sensitive point in the election calendar, with voters set to decide control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections.
The midterms are especially consequential because they will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term, shaping Republicans’ ability to advance his agenda and Democrats’ power to block legislation, conduct oversight and pursue investigations.
The FEC administers and enforces federal campaign-finance law and collects disclosures from candidates, political parties and political committees. The affected electronic filing system is used to submit campaign-finance information, including reports that can reveal how money is being spent in competitive races.
The outage is therefore primarily a campaign-finance transparency and disclosure issue, rather than a disruption to the mechanics of voting.
The FEC does not administer American elections, run polling places, operate voting equipment or count ballots.
The outage should have no effect on voters' ability to cast ballots.
Past campaign-finance reports also remain searchable despite the electronic filing outage, according to the agency's statement to Newsweek.
The timing could nevertheless temporarily reduce the amount of new spending information available during the campaign's closing stretch.
"I've never seen this in 26 years," Steven Mele, a partner at political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group, told Reuters. "The result is there will be less disclosure on the elections" until the system is restored.
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What Does Hacking of the FEC Mean?
The incident does not necessarily mean that hackers obtained access to FEC data.
While Reuters reported that hacking attempts were directed at FEC systems, which resulted in the agency taking services offline, the FEC has not confirmed the attempt or a successful attack.
A hacking attempt can lead an organization to restrict or disable internet-facing services while technicians investigate an attack, even without evidence that an attacker successfully accessed sensitive systems.
For the FEC, the immediate effect is on electronic campaign-finance filings. Reuters reported that organizations are unable to submit affected 24-hour and 48-hour spending disclosures while the system is unavailable. Those filings provide some of the most current information about political spending immediately before an election.
The FEC's separate search function remains available, meaning journalists, campaigns and members of the public can continue searching previously filed campaign-finance reports, according to the statement provided to Newsweek.
The FEC has not announced when electronic filing would resume or provided further information about the source or scope of the reported attack.
Previous Hacking Attempts in U.S. Elections
Cyberattacks and attempted intrusions have been a recurring concern surrounding U.S. elections, particularly since the 2016 presidential race.
During the 2016 election, Russian hackers targeted Democratic organizations and officials, including the Democratic National Committee, while election-related systems in multiple states were also targeted.
U.S. officials identified Russian activity affecting election systems in at least seven states, while separate reporting cited evidence that systems in as many as 39 states had been targeted.
The cyberthreat continued ahead of the 2018 midterms, when Russian hackers targeted U.S. Senate email systems.
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, federal officials warned that Russia, China and Iran could attempt to hack or otherwise interfere with the election.
The warnings reflected growing concern that foreign adversaries could target not only election infrastructure but also political organizations and campaigns.
These previous incidents have ranged from attempts to penetrate election-related computer systems to operations targeting political parties and officials.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Robert Greenall and Jason Lemon
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