counterintelligence

Government efforts to detect, identify, prevent, and neutralize foreign intelligence operations targeting the United States, its personnel, or its interests, as distinct from collecting foreign intelligence offensively. The FBI’s Counterintelligence Division investigates suspected foreign spying, influence operations, and sabotage conducted on U.S. soil. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election described the sharing of Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, an assessed Russian intelligence officer, as a “grave” counterintelligence threat.