Hackers Target U.S. Election Commission, Forcing Online System Shutdown Days Before Midterms

What happened?

Hackers targeting the U.S. Federal Election Commission forced officials to shut down its electronic filing system days before the November 3 midterm elections, blocking campaign finance disclosures during a critical spending period. The disruption affects how political committees report money flowing into races, not how Americans vote. The FEC does not run elections, and Reuters says the outage should not affect voters’ ability to cast ballots, according to Reuters. The shutdown began late on October 26 after campaign compliance staff could no longer submit mandatory reports.