FEC campaign finance system offline days before midterms after hackers reportedly target site

The US Federal Election Commission's website has been targeted by an unknown hacker or hackers, causing a disruption in the agency's electronic filings system a week before the November 3 elections. The cyberattack coincides with the surge in spending by super PACs and dark money groups in the final days of the races, as the elections are crucial in determining the retention of Republicans' majorities in Congress for the next two years.

The FEC reported that its electronic filing system is currently offline, and its IT staff are working to restore service. The organization stated that users could still search the website for past reports, but declined further comment on the outage. The FEC does not administer US elections, so the outage should not affect voters' ability to cast ballots.

The cyberattack has hindered organizations from filing 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which provide insights into how much political groups and others are spending on specific races. The outage has raised concerns about the reduced disclosure of election information until the system is fixed.