FEC Restores Filing System After Cyberattack Disrupts Campaign Spending Disclosures Before Midterms

The Federal Election Commission restored its electronic filing system October 28 after an outage lasting nearly 41 hours, Reuters reported. The shutdown, triggered by an attempted cyberattack, prevented political groups from submitting spending disclosures days before the November 3 midterm elections.

• The FEC’s status page reported at 4:50 p.m. EDT that electronic filing was available, a fix had been implemented and monitoring was underway.
• The outage blocked mandatory 24- and 48-hour reports detailing spending supporting or opposing candidates, delaying public access to last-minute campaign finance information.
• Outside groups averaged more than $50 million in daily spending during the preceding week, according to OpenSecrets research director Brendan Glavin, cited by Reuters.
• An FEC officer told compliance firms that services were taken offline following an attempted breach, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.
• The motive remained unknown. The FEC does not administer elections, and the outage was not expected to affect voters’ ability to cast ballots.

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Editor’s Note: This is a developing story. This article may be updated as more details become available.