Dawn Kopecki / Reuters : Email: a hacker attack forced the FEC to temporarily take its filing system offline around 10pm ET on Monday, blocking groups from submitting reports — The US Federal Election Commission's website was targeted by a hacker or hackers, according to an email seen by Reuters …
Email: a hacker attack forced the FEC to temporarily take its filing system offline around 10pm ET on Monday, blocking groups from submitting reports (Dawn Kopecki/Reuters)
In short
A digital assault on the U.S. Federal Election Commission forced administrators to deactivate the agency's filing infrastructure late Monday evening. According to an internal agency email reviewed by Reuters, the system was taken down around 10 p.m. ET to address the threat. The resulting system outage effectively prevented organizations from submitting their required regulatory reports. Investigators currently lack clarity on whether a single hacker or an organized collective carried out the attack.
Key points
- Critical regulatory submission platforms remain vulnerable to disruptive external cyber i…: Critical regulatory submission platforms remain vulnerable to disruptive external cyber intrusions.
- Unknown hackers successfully impaired the online reporting mechanisms of the Federal Elec…: Unknown hackers successfully impaired the online reporting mechanisms of the Federal Election Commission.
- The full scope and origin of the digital attack on the regulatory agency remain undetermi…: The full scope and origin of the digital attack on the regulatory agency remain undetermined.