“Malignant foreign influence in our elections has been a perennial problem,” Mr Rosen said.
In recent weeks, William R. Evanina, a top intelligence official, has issued warnings about Russia, China and Iran’s efforts to interfere in the elections, including a strong reminder that Russia has spread disinformation about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in an attempt to hurt his candidacy and oust Mr. Trump.
And top security officials held a briefing on Wednesday with state election officials to update them on the latest reporting on threats, including efforts by Russia, China and Iran to potentially influence election results.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have installed sensors on all state election computer networks as well as many local election systems to track all hackers’ efforts to conduct reconnaissance or hack into voting systems, officials said.
The censors have helped federal officials better understand the types of attempts to break into election systems. Most attempts have failed, according to homeland security officials, and were largely attempts to find vulnerabilities that could later be exploited.
The Department of Homeland Security has conducted tests and security evaluations of computer networks, with information from these assessments and from the new sensors to develop vulnerability alerts that hackers, including from foreign governments, may attempt to use before the election.
Some ransomware attacks on provincial governments have damaged electoral systems by blocking them, but those attacks were not aimed at stopping voting, federal officials said. However, they asked election officials to make adjustments.
Election security officials said they were concerned about operations for foreign influence, not just before election day, but also in the days after, especially when absent votes delay delays in counting votes.
Federal officials will set up two operations centers to quickly address any issues, one for unclassified information and one for classified intelligence, which will start functioning and remain a week before the election until local and state officials say the votes be counted. They will also set up a chat room for state and local officials to share information for a few days before and a few days after the election.
