专家警告网络黑客攻击

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron will propose greater UK and US collaboration against cyber terrorism when he meets with US President Barack Obama for talks in the Oval Office on Friday. The meeting has gained added urgency in the wake of the terrorist killings at the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

GCHQ, Britain's vast eavesdropping intelligence agency has revealed that every day a UK firm or organization's website is attacked by hackers.

Four out of five companies reporting attacks with costs running into billions of dollars, according to GCHQ director Robert Hannigan.

The internet can be a hostile environment. The threat of attack ever present new vulnerabilities are released. Doing nothing is no longer an option.

A favourite target among hackers, Britain's national grid, supplying power to homes and businesses.

A former UK defense minister warns of catastrophic consequences should an attack break the national grid's defences.

"I am told by people who work at the National Grid how unremitting are the attacks on the National Grid. 'If the electricity were interrupted for any serious length of time, the consequences on our society would be more devastating than we're able to contemplate at the moment," says James Arbuthnot, former UK Defense Minister.

And following a cyber-attack on the US military command responsible for US security in 20 nations stretching through the Middle East and into Central Asia, on the American side of the Atlantic, the dangers are recognized as equally high.

"Cyber threats are an urgent and growing danger," says Barack Obama, U.S. President.

The international hacking row, triggered by Sony's movie 'The Interview', and the attacks on Sony PlayStation, are just two examples of the chaos hackers can cause.

So, when UK Prime Minister David Cameron touches down in Washington, he'll be looking for ways the U-S and Britain can better work together.

The Charlie Hebdo killings sent shock waves through the British political establishment.  Higher levels of co-operation on data communications between the US and the UK could ensure there's no repetition here in the British capital. The challenge, how to achieve that while Obama and Cameron avoid an outcry over civil liberties.