A classified report on Russian efforts to influence the US presidential election has reportedly revealed British spies 'tipped off the CIA' about the hacking.

British intelligence was aware of Russia's involvement as early as autumn 2015, the report claims, shortly after they thwarted a similar attack targeting the UK general election.

'The British picked it up, and we may have had it at about the same time,' a cyber expert who has been briefed on the findings told The New York Times.

In 2015 a Russian hacking group known as Fancy Bears reportedly tried to disrupt the UK's general election by targeting every Whitehall server, including the Home Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, and every major TV broadcaster.

A declassified intelligence report explicitly ties President Vladimir Putin to meddling in the US election

The report which was released on Friday said Russia had a 'clear preference' for Trump in his race against Hillary Clinton

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 ties President Vladimir Putin to the meddling and said Russia had a 'clear preference' for Trump in his race against Hillary Clinton.

The paper, which called Russia's meddling the 'boldest effort yet' to influence a U.S. election, was the most detailed public account to date of Russian efforts to hack the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and individual Democrats, among them Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta.

It said that Russian government provided emails to WikiLeaks even though the website's founder, Julian Assange, has repeatedly denied that it got the emails it released from the Russian government.

The report noted that the emails could have been passed through middlemen.

'We assess with high confidence that the GRU (a top Russian intelligence agency) relayed material it acquired from the DNC and senior Democratic officials to WikiLeaks,' the report said.

Russia also used state-funded propaganda and paid 'trolls' to make nasty comments on social media services, the report said.

Moreover, intelligence officials believe that Moscow will apply lessons learned from its activities in the election to put its thumbprint on future elections in the United States and allied nations.

The public report was minus classified details that intelligence officials shared with President Barack Obama on Thursday.

Alisa Shevchenko is a skilled hacker employed by big businesses to track down weaknesses in their online security

On Saturday it also emerged a young Russian woman has been placed on a sanction list by the White House for supposedly helping to interfere in the US election.

Alisa Shevchenko is a skilled hacker employed by big businesses to track down weaknesses in their online security.

Her company was a surprise inclusion on a sanctions list released by the US government last week amid paranoia over alleged Russian meddling in Donald Trump's presidential election win.

The only information on the fact sheet said that the company - named ZOR - provided the Russian Federation's foreign intelligence service 'with technical research and development'.

However she hit back at the company's inclusion on the list, claiming she had never knowingly carried out work for the Russian government.

In encrypted emails to The Guardian, the hacker claimed the White House may have been tricked by 'counterfeit in order to frame my company' or had simply 'misinterpreted the facts'.

The news came as Putin attended a Russian Orthodox Christmas service at St George's Monastery in the Novgorod region.

The church celebrates the religious festival following the Julian calendar.

Vladimir Putin (centre left, front) attends a Christmas service at a Russian monastery

The Russian leader prepares to light a candle at the service at St George's Monastery

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) talks to fishermen after attending a Christmas service

Putin with a young girl lighting a candle at the Russian Orthodox church's service in Novorgod

Shevchenko said: 'A young female hacker and her helpless company seems like a perfect pick for that goal. I don't try to hide, I travel a lot, and am a friendly communicative person.

'And most importantly, I don't have any big money, power or connections behind me to shrug off the blame. So really, it could be anyone.'

She also mocked the the 'insane level of hysteria around the entire 'Russian hacking' story'.

Trump has ignored the intelligence report claiming Vladimir Putin influenced the election to help him win.

The president-elect insisted Russian hacking had 'no effect' on the outcome of the race for the White House and dismissed suggestions voting machines had been tampered with.

He made the strongly-worded denial just 10 minutes after he met with intelligence chiefs to discuss meddling by the Kremlin.

Clinton complained during a post-election party in December that Putin had a 'personal beef' against her stemming from her criticism of the elections that brought him to power.

Donald Trump, the president-elect, has insisted that the hacking had 'no effect' on the election's outcome, but has remained mum in the past 24 hours on Russia's involvement

Vladimir Putin's government in Moscow, Russia was behind a series of cyber attacks and other influence campaigns aimed at influencing America's election, according to a report released Friday by the NSA, CIA and FBI