UK And US To Stage Cyber War Games To Test Banks

Britain and the US will stage cyber "war games" together to boost both countries' resistance to cyberattacks.

During talks in Washington David Cameron and President Barack Obama also agreed to set up of a joint "cyber cell" to defeat cyberattacks, the White House said in a statement.

The unprecedented amount of intelligence co-operation and information sharing between the two nations topped the agenda of the talks.

Plans to force social media companies to share secret information were also expected to be discussed.

Ahead of the talks, the Prime Minister said: "We shouldn't leave a safe space in which terrorists can communicate with each other.

"There is a broad agreement that we need to have powers, in extremis, to intercept communications between terrorists. That is what America does today. It is what Britain does today.

"We share the intelligence and information between us and this has saved countless lives, not just in Britain and America but in other countries as well.

"We must go on sharing that information, both acting under our own legal systems, the legal system in America is different to the one here."

Under the plans, GCHQ and MI5 would join with the National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI to create a rolling programme of simulated war games involving attacks on the City and Wall Street to test their resilience.

It comes after a report by GCHQ warned that British companies are under attack by hackers, criminal gangs and foreign intelligence services.

Mr Obama is strengthening the US response to cyberattacks in the wake of the hack on Sony Pictures.

Earlier this week, Mr Cameron said he wanted to give the security services access to encrypted communications online, which are used by social media companies such as WhatsApp and Snapchat.

However, reservations were voiced in the US.

Andrew McLaughlin, former internet adviser to Mr Obama, said: "Slow hand clap for David Cameron, whose proposal to ban encrypted COMMS (leaving UK wide open to hacking, spying etc) is colossally stupid."

A White House spokesman also stressed the need to balance security with a right to privacy, and the importance of keeping a "functioning relationship" with internet companies.

However, Mr Cameron said: "We face the same challenge in Britain and in America.

"We are free countries, free societies where we don't want to interfere with the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens but, in extremis, it has always been necessary, after going through the proper processes, to make sure that if terrorists are talking to each other or communicating with each other and are about to commit an outrage, it's always been necessary to try and intercept that and try to stop those bombs, those attacks, those murders taking place."

Mr Cameron said the British system had "huge safeguards against intrusion" into privacy.

He added: "I believe the British public will back me when I say that we shouldn't allow terrorists to talk to each other without being able, in extremis, with a warrant from the Home Secretary signed personally by her, to intercept those calls."

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