A report on the 2022 United States midterm election was declassified and released jointly by the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) this week, prominently stating that no foreign government-affiliated actor was found to have compromised the integrity of that cycle.
Developed by executive order, the report made numerous determinations and recommendations for the future, originally as a classified joint report to President Joe Biden. Foreign governments, as well as agents acting on their behalf, were the focus. In the process, experts from agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) found that while some foreign government-affiliated and criminal cyber activity did target election infrastructure, it did not actually prevent or change votes, or otherwise diminish the ability to tally and transmit election results or the technical aspects of the process during the federal elections.
Chinese, Russian, and Iranian-affiliated individuals were found to have scanned and even accessed political campaign infrastructure at certain points, but the government could find no evidence any information obtained through these activities was actually used in any foreign influence operations or otherwise deployed, modified, or destroyed. Activity by both suspected Chinese cyber actors and pro-Russian hacktivists were among those identified by the report, though.
Notably, the federal agencies declared that federal, state, local, and territorial governments, in addition to private sector partners, successfully collaborated on improvements to cybersecurity, partnerships, and public messaging throughout 2022 to improve both election security and resilience. Both the DOJ and DHS pointed out ways to continue those efforts in the 2024 federal election cycle.