Australia's former top spy says the disruption of the US election by Russian hackers should be a warning to business to be aware of the potential theft by organised crime groups of corporate intellectual property and personal information.

"That notion of sabotage by states or disaffected groups around the [world] is something we now have got to take into account in our business models," David Irvine, the former director-general of both the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, told a conference hosted by Goldman Sachs.