China’s Ministry of State Security made the claims in a report titled “Uncovering the main despicable means of cyberattacks and secret theft by US intelligence agencies”

The cyber attack revelation comes just weeks after a trip to Pyongyang by Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu

China's embassy in London said the accusation was "disinformation" and called the US government "the world's biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief"

Representative Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House judiciary committee, said that "three hostile foreign actors" had attacked the courts' document filing system

The consultancy urged state authorities to restrict Chinese government-owned companies from state purchase and contracts and restrict university partnerships

Three US agencies said Pyongyang dispatches thousands of information technology workers worldwide, taking advantage of existing demands for specific skills

In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft said it had disrupted the cyber attacks, which it attributed to Strontium, a group linked to Russia’s military intelligence

The company said third-party unauthorised access was made at Bridgestone Americas on February 27, prompting a shutdown of its computer network

Attacks targeted investment firms and centralised exchanges, and made use of phishing lures, code exploits, malware and social engineering