US election watchdog's campaign-finance filing system is knocked offline after hacking attempts just ONE WEEK before the midterms

Hackers attacked the Federal Election Commission's electronic filing system late Monday night, bringing it down with just days to go before the November 3 midterm elections. Steven Mele, a partner at MBA Consulting Group, a political finance compliance firm, said the system going offline was something he had not witnessed in his 26 years working with it. The FEC confirmed its IT staff were working to restore service but would not say whether its systems had been successfully breached or any data taken.

The outage is preventing political organisations from submitting the 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports that disclose last-minute campaign finance activity.

The midterms will determine whether Trump's Republicans retain their congressional majorities for the remaining two years of his term.

Neither the FBI nor the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had returned requests for comment at the time of reporting.