Microsoft (MSFT  ) believes that former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign was targeted by Russian hackers through a strategy and communications firm working with the Biden campaign. Microsoft believes the hackers were the same as the ones who broke into Hillary Clinton's servers and leaked her emails.

It's believed that the hacking group is connected to the Russian military. However, the hackers were not successful in accessing any secure information due to the firm taking aggressive steps to protect data.

Due to the ubiquity of Microsoft Office and Windows operating systems, Microsoft has unusual insight into these types of breaches. It has launched a "Defending Democracy" initiative to help keep campaigns secure.

However, other Internet companies are also taking steps to protect user data as well through a variety of measures:

Twitter

Twitter (TWTR  ) is also attempting to ban accounts that are linked to spam, spreading false information, and automated accounts that are misrepresenting themselves. Specifically, the social network has sought to ban messages that could be interpreted as voter-suppression and foreign information campaigns to incite dissent among the electorate.

Twitter is also labeling and possibly deleting tweets or media that it deems to be manipulated, deceptive or fabricated. Of course, this has brought a great deal of acrimony from people who believe the platform shouldn't censor users.

Facebook

Facebook (FB  ) is also at the center of the storm. The social network is constantly under fire by liberals because the most commonly shared items on the social network are articles and links from conservative websites and personalities. Conservatives don't trust Facebook, because they consider the company to be headed by liberals.

Facebook has sought to find the balance between these interests and remain true to its mission of "connecting the world" by fact-checking content and deleting or labeling items that it feels are false or misleading. For example, it's been strict about banning or labeling posts that spread misinformation about COVID-19. It's also banning new political ads in the week before the election in another efforts to prevent misinformation from spreading.

It's also been aggressively encouraging users to register to vote and providing information about polling locations. In recent weeks, the company removed many accounts linked to Russian state actors that were spreading false information about Biden and VP candidate Kamala Harris.

Google

Google (GOOG  ) is also taking some measures to protect the election's integrity. It's noted that there have been increased attempts to undermine the election's legitimacy from within and outside of U.S. borders. It's also blocking autocomplete suggestions around candidates and political issues that could be construed as influencing people.

On YouTube, Google has also altered its algorithm which was steering users towards more polarizing videos. It's also looking to label or block videos from being played that are spreading misinformation as well as prevent certain accounts who are spreading false information from monetizing their videos.