Attempts to influence and interfere with elections and referendums of other countries and undermine their political systems are not a new element of statecraft, but the internet has made such efforts easier than ever before.

A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's International Cyber Policy Centre has found the number of elections and referendums in which interference has been reported has increased over the last 10 years, from just one known case in 2012 to a high of 13 cases in 2018.

There has been a total of 41 reported incidents over the period studied, 26 of which were considered cyber operations where an actor attempted to compromise a server or system to gain access and manipulate information. Of the 41, 34 were online information operations, such as social media disinformation and fake news campaigns. Twelve of the incidents recorded were both cyber and online information operations.

Report author Sarah O'Connor and her team said the integration of social media into people's lives and political discourse had "created an attack surface for malign actors to exploit".

The United States has been a target of 10 such operations in the past four years alone, including the well-publicised Russian operation where emails from the Democratic National Committee were hacked and information stolen.

Americans go to the polls in less than a week, but the presidential election has already been targeted six times, including an operation in which Chinese state-based hackers attempted to hack accounts related to Democratic candidate Joe Biden's campaign.

An Iranian-backed hacker group also targeted email accounts associated with Donald Trump's campaign.

Governments and online platforms that fail to respond to threats, by ensuring the security of digital voting and party systems or through social media campaigns, risk undermining trust in the integrity of electoral systems and democratic processes.

One Australian incident was included in the report, in which Parliament House and the major parties were targeted before the 2019 election.