Cyber officials from the US military are reportedly developing information warfare tactics to deploy against Russian elites should their country's government interfere in next year's presidential election.

Several government officials confirmed the developments to The Washington Post on Wednesday, under the guarantee of anonymity.

They say that the US is planning ways to obtain the personal data of Russian politicians and oligarchs if election meddling does not stop.

The sources did not disclose exactly what kind of 'sensitive information' they would be hoping to collect from such senior Russian figures, but the act could potentially put pressure on the country to cease interference into US affairs.

'It's sending credible signals to key decision-makers that they are vulnerable if they take certain adversarial actions,' Bobby Chesney, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Washington Post.

He described the tactic as not dissimilar to 'individually targeted economic sanctions'.