Security News

US Spy Agencies Find No Successful Foreign Hack of 2024 Election, But Influence Campaigns Persist

The Record · 24 Sept 2026

Key Takeaway Australian businesses should stay alert to AI-driven disinformation and influence tactics, as these methods are increasingly used by foreign actors instead of direct system hacking.

A classified assessment by US intelligence agencies has concluded that no foreign adversary successfully interfered in the 2024 presidential election, according to sources familiar with the findings. The report, completed last year, found that Russia, Iran and China each conducted influence campaigns of varying intensity, with Moscow's efforts being the most significant, aiming to boost Donald Trump and undermine Kamala Harris.

These findings echo similar assessments conducted after the 2020 and 2022 elections, which showed that foreign actors have largely avoided technically difficult attempts to hack election infrastructure or tamper with votes directly. Instead, nations such as Russia, China and Cuba have favoured influence operations, selectively supporting or attacking candidates based on how their policies align with foreign interests.

A public version of the latest assessment is expected to be released soon, though the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not commented. Concerns about foreign election interference have grown since 2016, and are now compounded by fears that artificial intelligence could make future influence campaigns more sophisticated and harder to detect.

election security foreign interference disinformation AI threats national security

Summarised by CISO AI from The Record. We link back to every original so you can read it yourself.