The Federal Election Commission restored its electronic filing system on Wednesday night after taking it offline for nearly 41 hours to contain a cyberattack, Reuters reported on October 28. The outage temporarily concealed spending from big donors as political donations ramp up in the final days of the midterm elections. The FEC filing system is the public window into who is spending money to help or hurt candidates, and for almost two days that window was closed.
Super PACs and other groups could not file mandatory 24-hour and 48-hour reports during the outage, Reuters reported. Those reports show how much money outside groups are spending in the closing stretch of a campaign, when advertising and voter outreach reach their fastest pace. With the FEC filing system down, the most recent political spending stayed out of public view, and campaign watchdogs sounded alarms as the outage dragged into its third evening.
The FEC told users that most of the services affected by the outage have been restored. It posted a notice just after 10 p.m. ET on Monday saying it was investigating a problem that caused “major” outages across its systems that process electronic campaign filings. An FEC officer told campaign compliance firms late Monday that the agency took those services offline after a “bad actor” tried to breach its systems, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.
FEC filing system outage hid last-minute spending
The outage came at a moment when daily spending was accelerating to its fastest pace in the two-year election cycle, campaign finance specialists said. Super PACs, which can accept and give unlimited amounts of money, and dark money groups spent an average of over 50 million dollars per day in the week before the FEC filing system outage, OpenSecrets research director Brendan Glavin said. More than 250 million dollars in spending was reported on October 20 alone, Glavin added.
“We didn’t have access to the last-minute spending, which is really ramped up as the election draws nearer,” said campaign finance watchdog Molly White, who tracks crypto and Big Tech political spending. “We have no visibility into that when the filing systems are down.” White added: “It’s pretty devastating this close to the election.”
OpenSecrets executive director Hilary Braseth, in a statement released before the system was restored, said: “Disclosure delayed is disclosure denied. When hundreds of millions of dollars in outside money flood political airwaves in the final days before an election, transparency is not an optional luxury, it is a fundamental public safeguard.”
Campaign finance managers had to reset their passwords before logging in once the FEC filing system returned, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.
What the FEC filing system outage did not affect
The FEC does not play a role in administering United States elections, Reuters reported, and the outage should have no effect on voters’ ability to cast ballots. Voting is run by state and local officials, while the FEC collects and publishes campaign finance reports. The outage blocked disclosure, not voting, and no reporting has linked it to ballot systems.
Reuters could not establish the motive for the FEC filing system hacking effort. Hackers of all stripes regularly target government networks for espionage, financial gain or political motives, the agency reported. The FEC did not return requests for comment on Wednesday and did not announce any details on the cause of the outage. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI both referred questions to the FEC, leaving the agency as the only official source for answers about what happened.
The timing of the hacking attempt this close to the November 3 elections, and the lack of information from the FEC, stirred up conspiracy theories throughout the industry, several people told Reuters. White noted that it would be a good way for unscrupulous actors to hide unpopular last-minute spending.
Why the FEC filing system was taken offline
Kyle Sandy, the cybersecurity director at IT security firm Logically, said taking the FEC filing system offline is the right call when dealing with an attack. “It tells me the FEC detected something they couldn’t immediately scope and chose a known outage over an unknown risk,” Sandy said.
The FEC filing system outage lasted nearly 41 hours, from the Monday night notice to the Wednesday night restoration. That span covered two full days of the final week before the November 3 midterms, a period when outside spending runs at its peak.
Questions remain open. The FEC has not said what the attacker tried to reach, whether any data was altered or taken, or who was behind the attempt. Reuters reported that the agency has not announced details on the cause, and the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have directed questions back to the FEC.