The tech giant's vice chairman warned that America and the rest of the world continues to be at threat from "malicious" activity by threat actors employed to work on behalf of China, Iran and Russia, and that more needs to be done to prevent cyber attacks.

Smith told the Financial Times: “I hope that the Trump administration will push harder against nation-state cyber attacks, especially from Russia, China and Iran. We should not tolerate the level of attacks that we are seeing today."

American cybersecurity company SonicWall’s executive vice-president of EMEA, Spencer Starkey, told the outlet: “The cyber battleground continues to expand, and there is an increasing global concern, particularly towards government agencies. We’ve seen an uptick in almost all forms of malicious attacks on government[s]."

Starkey continued: “In a divisive landscape, we’re seeing a continued geo-migration of threats, and governments are under constant cyber threat. These cyber attacks raise concerns about a country’s own national security, critical national infrastructure as well as the safety of sensitive information.

“Protecting government networks relies on constant communication and cooperation, working together with the private sector and imposing strict punishments, to deter future attacks."