The world is heading towards a “permanent war” in cyberspace, the head of France’s digital security agency has warned, reports The Independent.
Guillaume Poupard, director general of the National Cybersecurity Agency of France (ANSSI) said intensifying attacks were coming from unspecified states, as well as criminal and extremist groups.
“We must work collectively, not just with two or three Western countries, but on a global scale,” he added, saying attacks could aim at espionage, fraud, sabotage or destruction.
“We are getting closer, clearly, to a state of war - a state of war that could be more complicated, probably, than those we've known until now.”
He was speaking as the world continued to reel from the global WannaCry ransomware attack, which crippled the NHS earlier this month.
Targeting computers an outdated Windows operating system, it infected more than 230,000 computers in 150 countries in just a day, including Russia, India and Taiwan.
It came amid allegations that Russia-backed hackers were responsible for cyber attacks affecting elections in the US and France.