The FBI is investigating cyberattacks targeting a Democratic candidate in a highly competitive congressional primary in southern California, Rolling Stone reported Tuesday.
In what were described as the first reported instances of "distributed denial of service" attacks — which typically inundate online targets with illegitimate Internet traffic, making it inaccessible — on a congressional candidate in 2018, the publication reported hacks crashed the campaign website of Democrat Bryan Caforio four times over five weeks, including several hours before the biggest debate of the primary and a week before the election.
Caforio was running in the congressional district of incumbent GOP Rep. Steve Knight — a top target of the Democratic Party, the publication noted. He finished third.
"I'm glad the FBI has now launched an investigation into the hack," Caforio told the publication in a statement. "These attacks put our democracy at risk, and they'll keep happening until we take them seriously and start to punish those responsible."
Caforio told Rolling Stone an FBI special agent contacted one of his former campaign staffers about the attacks. The publication reported the FBI has since spoken with several people who worked on the campaign, and asked for forensic data.
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