UK Government Faces 1,000 Malicious E-Mails Daily

The United Kingdom faces a "real and credible" threat of cyber attack and nearly 1,000 malicious e-mails a month are being targeted at government computer networks.

Those numbers come from Iain Lobban, head of the Government Communications Headquarters, a British intelligence agency, in his first public appearance, the BBC reported.

The UK's future economic prosperity rests on ensuring a defense against such assaults, the BBC reported, and said that Lobban, speaking to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, did not want to go to into detail about the threat.

Speaking the day after Lobban, Neil Thompson, director of the UK Office for Cyber Security, said in a unprecedented public speech that there has already been "significant disruption to government computers by internet worms," The Guardian reported.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has agreed to spend 1 billion British pounds, or about $1.6 billion, on cyber warfare capabilities as part of his government's Strategic Defence Review, the Daily Mail reported.