British spies had apprised the CIA of Russian efforts to influence the US presidential election by hacking. Aaj News reported on Saturday night that British intelligence was aware of Russia's involvement as early as autumn 2015 shortly after they thwarted a similar attack targeting the UK general elections. In 2015, a Russian hacking group known as Fancy Bears reportedly tried to disrupt the UK's general elections by targeting every Whitehall server, including the Home Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, and every major TV broadcaster.

However, the attempt was thwarted by GCHQ. A declassified version of the report into Russian efforts to influence the US presidential election, released on Friday, explicitly tied President Vladimir Putin to the meddling and said Russia had a 'clear preference' for Trump in his race against Hillary Clinton.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017