What happened?
The US Federal Election Commission (FEC) shut down its electronic filing system after an attempted cyberattack. Reuters, citing an internal email, reported that the system went offline just a week before the November 3 midterm elections.
What is the impact?
Because of the outage, political groups are temporarily unable to submit campaign finance reports. During an election period, timely publication of donation and spending records is critical for voters and oversight.
Why it matters
Cyberattacks on election infrastructure directly affect trust in democratic processes. The incident renews debate over how well election agencies' systems are protected.
