Soft Target - Cyberterrorism

CNET reports that foreign governments are the primary threat to the UK.'s critical national infrastructure because of their hunger for information, a British government agency said.

The National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre said on Tuesday that the most significant electronic threats are content-based, targeted, Trojan horse e-mail attacks from the Far East.

"Foreign states are probing the CNI for information," said Roger Cummings, the director of NISCC, speaking at SANS Institute's launch of its Top 20 Critical Internet Vulnerability Listing in London.

The agency is in charge of defending the UK's critical national infrastructure, which is made up of financial institutions; key transport, telecom and energy networks; and government organizations.

NISCC is working with its equivalents in the countries concerned to try to shut the attacks down, Cummings said. The agency cannot name the countries concerned as this may "ruin diplomatic efforts to halt the attacks," he added.