In a bid to crack down on "illegal cyber activities" surrounding any and all US elections, the US Department of State is offering up to a $10 million reward.

As part of the US Department of State's Rewards for Justice Program, the new "Foreign Election Interference" reward is being offered in return for "information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction of or under the control of a foreign government, interferes with any United States federal, state, or local election by violating section 1030 of title 18."

As ZDNet reports, the reward payout is quite specific and only applies to hackers working for foreign governments. The Department of State has gone into more detail as to the types of activity it believes could be underway, "Foreign adversaries could employ malicious cyber operations targeting election infrastructure, including voter registration databases and voting machines, to impair an election in the United States ... Such adversaries could also conduct malicious cyber operations against U.S. political organizations or campaigns to steal confidential information and then leak that information as part of influence operations to undermine political organizations or candidates." It hopes this reward will help prevent any such activity being successful.

Administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, the Rewards for Justice Program was first introduced back in 1984 and has already paid out more than $150 million to over 100 people. Rewards north of $25 million can be awarded if the Secretary of State "determines that a greater amount is necessary to combat terrorism or to defend the United States against terrorist acts." But for illegal activity surrounding US elections, the limit has been set at a still very healthy $10 million.

Posters to accompany the new reward announcement have been produced in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Persian, Russian, and Spanish. Anyone with relevant information is being encouraged to contact Rewards for Justice directly via the [email protected] email address or the tips line 001-202-999-5113.

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