Foreign hackers did not disrupt US presidential elections despite efforts by Iran and Russia, report says

RUSSIA AND IRAN sought to influence the outcome of the US presidential election last November, according to a government report.

Despite these efforts, US intelligence officials found no evidence that any foreign actor changed the votes or disrupted the voting process.

The report released today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence amounts to the most detailed description of the wide range of foreign threats to the 2020 elections.

This included Russian-influenced operations that officials say were authorized by President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s efforts to undermine confidence in the vote and damage Donald Trump’s re-election prospects.

The report says the US tracked a broader range of foreign electoral threats than in previous cycles, including from the Middle East and South America.

In the end, officials said: “We have no indication that any foreign actor has attempted to interfere in the 2020 US elections by altering any technical aspect of the voting process, including voter registration, ballot casting, vote tabulation. or the presentation of results reports “.

The report examines the claims of which foreign adversaries supported which candidates during the 2020 presidential election.

That question gained heightened scrutiny when Trump, whose 2016 election effort profited from hacking by Russian intelligence officials and a covert social media campaign, tapped into an intelligence community assessment from last August that said China preferred a Biden presidency upon reelection.

Today’s report, however, says that China ultimately did not interfere on either side and “considered but did not deploy” influence operations intended to affect the outcome.

Officials determined that Beijing valued a stable relationship with the United States and did not view any of the election results as advantageous enough to risk being caught.

A separate document from the Justice and Homeland Security departments reached a similar conclusion about the integrity of the election.