Hackers target US campaign finance system days before midterm elections

Hackers have reportedly targeted the US Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) website, disrupting campaign financing disclosures just days before the midterm elections.

An FEC email sent to a campaign compliance firm reportedly read, “We have a bad actor trying to breach FEC systems. As a result, we’ve had to temporarily suspend our web-facing services,” according to Reuters news agency.

The outage prevents organisations from filing the FEC’s 24 and 48-hour spending reports, which track how political groups and candidates are spending on specific races.

A status message on the FEC website showed the system was down after 10.15pm EST on Monday (2.15am GMT on Tuesday).

An update was posted on Tuesday at 8.17pm EST, reading, “The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.”

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency both referred questions to the FEC.

The FEC does not play a role in administering US elections, but the reported hack comes as so-called Super PACs and dark money groups are spending record sums in the final days before the midterm elections on November 3.

Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum wrote on X, “This has NOTHING to do with voter files or voter registration. Those are maintained by the states. The FEC only handles federal campaign finance findings.

“We are working hard to restore the systems as soon as possible.”

The midterms are now the most expensive US elections in history, with roughly $11.21bn spent on advertising and future reservations so far, according to political advertising tracker AdImpact.

That surpasses the previous record of $11.2bn spent in the 2024 elections – including $3.2bn in the presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris, according to AdImpact figures.

Much of the spending is being done by super PACs – independent political committees which can accept unlimited amounts of money from wealthy individuals and corporations and spend it on campaigns, with few restrictions.

Super PACs and dark money groups have spent an average of $50m per day over the past week, according to Brendan Glavin, research director at nonpartisan campaign watchdog group OpenSecrets.

“It’s a big deal,” Glavin said. “In the last days of the election, this is the only way for us to keep track of where the money is being spent.”