GCHQ has warned officials involved in organising the general election that they could be targeted by state-sponsored hackers attempting to disrupt the poll or manipulate the result.

The intelligence agency's National Cyber Security Centre has advised local government workers overseeing voting to take care to avoid giving away information that might be “useful to those who aspire to manipulate or compromise electoral processes in the UK.”

In a briefing issued last week, the NCSC said those seeking to cause “damage” might attempt to identify individuals with pivotal roles, using information on social networking websites, such as Facebook and Twitter. It urged individuals to be “cautious about the detail they provide to others regarding their election duties.”

The advice, drawn up together with the government's Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, cited several examples of foreign countries being targeted in recent years. Some were likely to have been "state-sponsored" attacks.

The Cabinet Office has "stood up" an "election cell" which will hold regular meetings over the next five weeks to examine potential security threats.

Examples cited by the NCSC of attacks on the elections of other countries included claims by Ukrainian authorities that attackers targeted election officials during the country's presidential elections in March.