Cameron pledges to battle cyber attacks

London: David Cameron said that the Conservatives would set up a new centre to deal with cyber attacks against Britain as he outlined his plans to improve national security.

In a speech in London, the Tory leader said that if elected he would set up a cyber threat and assessment centre because he believed that cyber-warfare was going to be a growing problem in the 21st century.

Cameron claimed that he was planning "one of the most radical departures in security policy we've seen in decades". And, in an attack on Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former director of communications, he said that he would take measures to ensure that a Conservative government did not publish any "dodgy dossiers" relating to intelligence and security.

Cameron set out his plans this morning in a speech at Chatham House in London which coincided with the publication of a 30-page national security green paper called A Resilient Nation. He said that he wanted Britain to be ready to deal with all kinds of cyber-attacks.

"We know that there are hundreds of thousands of cyber-attacks and crimes against British businesses every year. Against government and the public sector, there may be many more.

"As technology and computers and the internet become bigger and bigger parts of our lives, the effect of cyber-warfare will become more pronounced," Cameron said.

"You only have to look at the so-called ‘Clickskrieg' against Estonia in 2007 which crippled the government and the banking sector and almost brought the entire country to a halt for a sign of how serious a major attack could be."

In his speech, Cameron also confirmed plans to set up a national security council, which he said would meet from day one of a Conservative government.

He also declared that trust was an important part of a national security strategy and he said that the way Labour used intelligence in the run-up to the war in Iraq meant that people no longer had trust in what they were being told by government.