The hackers started leaking data after Medibank – the country's largest health insurer – refused to pay a US$9.7 million (about RM45 million) ransom.

The hacking was discovered in the summer when Truss was foreign minister and campaigning to become party leader and the next prime minister, The Mail reports.

The website of Taiwan's presidential office was targeted by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and was at one point malfunctioning.

An unsealed redacted affidavit described the unusual operation as a pre-emptive move to stop Russian hackers from mobilising the compromised devices into a 'botnet' .

The report did not say which militaries had been targeted in what Google described as 'credential phishing campaigns' launched by a Russian-based group called Coldriver, or Callisto.

Russia has not officially updated its casualty figures since stating on March 2 that 498 servicemen had been killed and 1,597 wounded.

Senior White House cybersecurity official Anne Neuberger says the US government has seen 'preparatory' Russian hacking activity aimed at numerous US companies, but it has 'no certainty' such an attack will occur.

The discovery was shared with the US government in recent months, who have shared the information with foreign partners, according to a US official.

Ukrainian officials say the attack hit around 70 internet sites of government bodies including the security and defence council, the cabinet of ministers and several ministries.

A UN panel of experts that monitors sanctions on North Korea has accused Pyongyang of using stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to circumvent sanctions.

The National Privacy Commission says it will start its own investigation and call for an explanation from Commission on Elections and the newspaper.

Meta did not provide a detailed explanation of how it identified the firms, but it operates some of the biggest social and communications networks and touts its ability to remove malicious actors from its platforms.