British govt. computers under cyber attacks from hostile states: Hague

London, Feb 5 (ANI): British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that cyberspace is allowing criminals and hostile intelligence agencies to attack the British government.

During a conference in Munich, Hague not only talked about how government computers were infected by a virus last year, but also detailed an attempt to steal data from a UK defence contractor. He stressed that someone in disguise of an employee of another defence firm had designed to steal information, the BBC reports.

He also said that some computers of the British government were infected with the "Zeus" virus, which was revealed after users had opened an e-mail purported to have come from the White House and followed a link, the report said.

"Our experts were able to clear up this infection but more sophisticated attacks such as these are becoming more common," he said.

Insisting that cyberspace was providing "rich pickings" for criminals, Hague urged the government to take faster steps to deal with the threat.

Last month, he had said that his staff had been receiving e-mails someone posing as another colleague in the Foreign Office, but e-mails were "from a hostile state intelligence agency" and contained "code embedded in the attached document that would have attacked their machine."

The foreign secretary said the e-mails were prevented from reaching their intended targets. (ANI)