Bad actor cyberattack on FEC obscures political spending by donors and SuperPACs days before US midterm elections

Date:
Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:05:00 +0000

Description:
US midterm elections are just days away, and an attack on the FEC has left millions of dollars in donations undeclared.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The FEC was hit by a
cyberattack on Monday that took filing systems offline 24 and 48 hour
donation reports couldn't be filed for almost 41 hours The attack has been blamed on a "bad actor", but no other details have been released Just days before voters head to the polls in what is the most significant voting occasion in Donald Trumps second term, the Federal Election Commission went offline for almost 41 hours to contain a cyberattack.

During that time, there was a window for big donors and SuperPACs to fund campaigns without being able to submit 24 and 48 hour funding reports, likely leaving millions of dollars undeclared. Campaign and finance watchdogs have voiced outrage about the lack of transparency into funding at a critical time in the election cycle, especially as there are no caps on how much SuperPACs can spend to help or hinder candidates. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Funding transparency goes dark An email sent to campaign compliance firms on Monday said that FEC services were taken down after a bad actor attempted to gain access to systems. Outside of this, there is little information to go on regarding who would be responsible or what their motives might be.

According to OpenSecrets research director Brendan Glavin, who spoke to Reuters , around $50 million was spent per day in the lead up to the FEC outage, with $250 spent on October 20 alone. You may like FBI warns of
torrent of scams and deepfakes ahead of US midterm elections SuperPACs are funneling millions of dollars into pro-AI candidates, with Trump saying communities that reject data centers will end up backwards and poor Trump officials asked CISA to secretly hack a voting machine and not disclose any vulnerabilities they found

Disclosure delayed is disclosure denied, Hilary Braseth, executive director
of nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets, said in a statement during the outage. 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.

As would be expected, numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the FEC outage have been floated online. Many suggested the outage would give donors a
window to funnel millions of dollars of undeclared funding into candidates needing a last minute boost. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

We didn't have access to the last-minute spending, which is really ramped up as the election draws nearer, Molly White, a crypto and Big Tech political spending tracker, told Reuters. We have no visibility into that when the filing systems are down. It's pretty devastating this close to the election

It's hard to say with any real information that that's what happened, but
it's certainly I think where people's minds go very quickly, she concluded. SuperPACs back pro-AI candidates AI has been a hot topic ahead of the midterm elections, which take place on November 3. The huge buildout of AI data centers across the US - and the billions spent to fund it - have been met
with opposition by the majority of Americans . What to read next Nvidia looks to set up an employee-funded political action committee to try and shape US policy in its favor 'This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle': Republican Party tells top AI firms to do something about rising US data center opposition 'Dr. Frankenstein is telling us the monster is escaping': US lawmakers desperately want to set up AI guardrails before midterm elections

To counter the outrage and swing the vote in favor of AI, numerous SuperPACS have spent millions of dollars to support campaigns of pro-AI candidates and millions more to harm those critical of the technology.

President Trump has pushed an administrative policy of AI at any cost , claiming that the US economy and national security depends on continuing AI superiority over rivals such as China. To that end, the estimates on the
total AI infrastructural spending range between $2.8 trillion by 2030 to
$10.3 trillion by 2032 , so there is certainly a lot riding on this election.

With many states enacting or considering moratoriums on AI data centers, anti-AI candidates could scupper the Trump administration's hopes for being
an AI powerhouse. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/bad-actor-cyberattack-on-fec-obscures-p olitical-spending-by-donors-and-superpacs-days-before-us-midterm-elections


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