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Federal Election Commission takes web services offline after hacker breach attempt

The U.S. Federal Election Commission temporarily shut down its web-facing systems following an attempted breach by a hacker, leaving its electronic filing service offline days ahead of the midterm elections.

Graphic illustration showing a hooded figure at a laptop displaying 'System Offline' in front of the US Capitol and the Federal Election Commission seal, with bold text reading 'HACKER TARGETS U.S. ELECTION AGENCY'.
Image: @MarioNawfal

The U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) has temporarily shut down its web-facing services after a hacker attempted to breach its systems, according to an agency email seen by Reuters. The agency's electronic filing system has remained offline since approximately 10 p.m. Monday while information technology personnel work to restore services, an outage also confirmed directly on the FEC's website.[4][1][2][3]

The shutdown arrives just days ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned the previous week that cyber actors could target election officials and political organizations with cyberattacks intended to steal credentials and disrupt operations.[3]

Key facts

  • The U.S. Federal Election Commission temporarily shut down its public-facing web services following an attempted hacker breach, according to an email seen by Reuters.
  • The FEC's electronic filing system has been offline since around 10 p.m. Monday, with the disruption confirmed on the agency's website.
  • The incident occurred days before the U.S. midterm elections.
  • The FBI and CISA issued a warning the prior week that hackers could target election officials and political organizations to steal credentials and disrupt systems.

Sources · 4 sources

  1. UW

    unusual_whales@unusual_whalesPost on X ·

    BREAKING: A hacker is attempting to breach the US Federal Election Commission's systems and that agency has had to 'temporarily shut down,’ per Reuters

    Open source
  2. MT

    MTS@MTSlivePost on X ·

    SITUATION DETECTED: Hackers attempting to breach the US Federal Election Commission system have triggered an outage, the filing service has been down since 10pm last night, per Reuters.

    Open source
  3. MN

    Mario Nawfal@MarioNawfalPost on X ·

    🇺🇸 A HACKER is trying to break into the U.S. Federal Election Commission, and the agency has SHUT DOWN its public-facing systems. The FEC says its electronic filing system has been offline since around 10 p.m. Monday while IT staff work to restore service. Its own website currently confirms the outage. The U.S. midterms are days away, and the FBI and CISA warned just last week that hackers could target election officials and political organizations with cyberattacks aimed at stealing credentials and disrupting operations. Source: Reuters / Writer: Sol

    Open source
  4. RE

    Reuters@ReutersPost on X ·

    BREAKING: A hacker is attempting to breach the US Federal Election Commission's systems and that agency has had to 'temporarily shut down' its web-facing services as a result, according to an email seen by Reuters https://t.co/0eRHQVCGgu https://t.co/ZXjOWxw1w8

    Open source