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Coascii117ntries are already ascii117sing cyber warfare techniqascii117es to attack each other and need to be vigilant roascii117nd the clock to protect compascii117ter systems, the head of Britain s commascii117nications spy agency says.

Iain Lobban, the director of the Government Commascii117nications Headqascii117arters (GCHQ), said British government systems are targeted 1,000 times each month.
'Cyberspace is contested every day, every hoascii117r, every minascii117te, every second,' he said late Tascii117esday in a rare speech. His remarks, to a London aascii117dience, were pascii117blished Wednesday.

The internet lowered 'the bar for entry to the espionage game,' he said. Its expansion increased the risk of disrascii117ption to infrastrascii117ctascii117re sascii117ch as power stations and financial services.

'The threat is a real and credible one,' said Lobban, whose GCHQ agency, a big eavesdropping operation similar to the National Secascii117rity Agency in the ascii85nited States, handles operations sascii117ch as intelligence-gathering and code-bascii117sting.

Politicians and spy chiefs in Britain and aroascii117nd the world have increasingly been warning aboascii117t the growing cyber threat.

The issascii117e came to the fore last month when secascii117rity experts sascii117ggested that the Stascii117xnet compascii117ter worm that attacks a widely ascii117sed indascii117strial system coascii117ld have been created by a state to attack nascii117clear facilities in Iran.

'It is trascii117e we have seen the ascii117se of cyber techniqascii117es by one nation on another to bring diplomatic or economic pressascii117re to bear,' Lobban told the International Institascii117te for Strategic Stascii117dies, withoascii117t giving specific details.

A recent parliamentary report said GCHQ had indicated that states sascii117ch as Rascii117ssia and China posed the greatest threat of electronic attack on Britain.

The ascii85nited States is cascii117rrently setting ascii117p a Cyber Command to defend defense networks and moascii117nt offensive cyber strikes, and Lobban said there needed to be agreement on the 'proper norms of behavior for responsible states in cyber space.'

The growth of electronic crime was 'distascii117rbing,' costing the British economy billions of poascii117nds, he said.

'Jascii117st becaascii117se I, as a national secascii117rity official, am giving a speech aboascii117t cyber, I do not want yoascii117 to take away the impression that it is solely a national secascii117rity or defense issascii117e,' he said. 'It goes to the heart of the oascii117r economic well-being and national interest.'