A nation can now be brought to its knees via a cyber attack, according to the chairman of the BT Group.
Speaking at the East West institute cyber security summit in London, Sir Michael Rake said that it was no exaggeration to say that sort of attack was now possible without military intervention.
He said that the ability to create a cyber warfare scenario is important and 'there'.
“Clearly this means getting into a cyber technology point of view from a defensive and offensive point of view, and it can be used in security and is an effective way to deal with threats. [Stuxnet] was a lot more capable than any military attack,” he said.
He also claimed that there needs to be a level of trust on national and international levels, as an increase and learning key lessons can benefit all of us.
“We have to participate in a global supply chain as this is a complex area, at the same time for government and industry it is critical and the level of awareness of cyber security is not not as broad as it should be.
“There is a real issue to be more open to address the threats and issues and I think these need to be energised, there is much work to be done to have minimum standards to protect users from attack. The move to introduce a cyber security treaty, it will be difficult to administer but it is critical to talk about these areas. Compared to a nuclear proliferation treaty, it will be easier.”
