WASHINGTON • United States President Donald Trump's campaign website was briefly taken over by hackers who defaced the site.

The defacement lasted less than 30 minutes on Tuesday, but the incident came as Mr Trump's campaign and that of his opponent, Mr Joe Biden, as well as law enforcement and intelligence agencies, were on high alert for digital interference ahead of next week's election.

Mr Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman, confirmed the website's defacement and said it was "working with the law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack".

He added: "There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site. The website has been restored."

It was not clear whether the defacement was the work of foreign hackers or cyber criminals. But in a screed posted to Mr Trump's website - donaldjtrump.com - the hackers claimed to have compromised "multiple devices" that gave them access to the "most internal and secret conversations" of the President and his relatives.

The hackers also accused the Trump administration of having a hand in the origins of the coronavirus and cooperating with "foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections".

They appeared to be looking to generate cryptocurrency. They invited visitors to donate cryptocurrency to one of two funds - one labelled "Yes, share the data" and the other labelled "No, Do not share the data".

"After the deadline, we will compare the funds and execute the will of the world," they wrote.

Cyber-security experts said the incident could have been caused by tricking a website administrator into turning over the credentials, or by redirecting the campaign website to the hacker's own server.

Intelligence agencies have been closely monitoring hacking groups, including teams backed by Iran and Russia, that have tried to break into election-related systems and have been involved in influence operations in recent weeks.

NYTIMES