US report officially links hacks to Russia

The US has released a report on accusations that Russia interfered in the US presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts.

The 13-page document by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI is the first report to attribute hacking to a particular country or individuals.

It is also the first time the US has officially tied intrusions into the Democratic National Committee to hackers with the Russian civilian and military intelligence services, the FSB and GRU, expanding on an accusation made by the Obama administration in October.

The report said the intelligence services were involved in "an ongoing campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the US government and its citizens."

It added: "In some cases, (the Russian intelligence services') actors masqueraded as third parties, hiding behind false online personas designed to cause the victim to misattribute the source of the attack."

Over the summer stolen emails from Democrats were posted by an online persona known as Guccifer 2.0, believed by US officials to be linked to Russia.

Outrage over documents that appeared to show favouritism for Hillary Clinton forced the DNC's chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to resign.