The UK, US and the Netherlands have accused Russia of being responsible for a spate of global cyber attacks, with seven people being charged by the US.

The charges against the seven include conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Four the seven were the men expelled from the Netherlands having after being caught attempting a cyber-attack on the headquarters of the international chemical weapons watchdog, which was disrupted by Dutch military intelligence.

The hack was thwarted with the aid of British intelligence officials and on Thursday the UK government accused the Kremlin of violating international laws with "indiscriminate and reckless cyber attacks".

The NCSC said it has assessed with high confidence that the GRU has almost certainly been conducting attacks under various aliases, such as Fancy Bear, Sednit and APT 28.

The NCSC has blamed the GRU for attacks such as the 2017 WADA email leak, which saw the identities of 28 football players who had received a Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) released online.

The Kremlin has also been accused of the 2017 'Bad Rabbit' ransomware that encrypted hard drives and rendered IT inoperable, resulting in mass disruption to services including the Kyiv metro, Odessa airport, Russia's central bank and two Russian media outlets.