FEC electronic filing system outage after hacking attempts ahead of November 3 elections
Severity: medium · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2026-10-27
Reuters reports, citing an internal email, that the US Federal Election Commission's website was targeted by a hacker or hackers, disrupting the agency's electronic filing system roughly a week before the November 3 elections. The FEC confirmed its electronic filing system was offline. The attackers' identity, methods, and whether any data was accessed have not been disclosed. The outage affects filers — campaigns and committees that submit reports electronically — during a peak pre-election filing period. No CVE or patch applies; this is an intrusion/attack incident under investigation.
What to do
- Monitor FEC status channels for restoration of the e-filing system and alternative filing instructions
- Prepare contingency plans for paper or delayed filings if the outage persists through the pre-election deadline
- Harden public-facing web infrastructure and review logs for related intrusion attempts
- Watch for phishing or disinformation exploiting the outage
Sources
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