From Reuters:  Britain will recruit hundreds of computer experts to defend its vital networks against cyber attacks and launch high-tech assaults of its own, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said on Sunday.

Addressing the annual conference of his ruling Conservative party, Hammond said Britain was spending increasing amounts of its defence budget, the fourth largest in the world, on cyber intelligence and surveillance.

“Last year our cyber defenses blocked around 400,000 advanced malicious cyber threats against the government’s secure internet alone, so the threat is real,” he told delegates.

From the BBC:  In July the British intelligence agency, GCHQ, told the BBC the UK had seen about 70 sophisticated cyber espionage operations a month against government or industry networks.

In a written statement in December last year, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said 93% of large corporations and 76% of small businesses had reported a cyber breach in 2012.

Image: GCHQ at Cheltenham (photo: GCHQ)