The think-tank’s annual report stressed the growing likelihood of ‘asymmetric techniques’ becoming the weapons of choice for use against UK and US targets.

“Future state on state conflict may be characterised by the use of so-called asymmetric techniques. Chief among these may be the use of cyber-warfare to disable a country’s infrastructure, meddle with the integrity of another country’s internal military data, try to confuse its financial transactions or to accomplish any number of other possibly crippling aims”, said the report.

“Despite evidence of cyber attacks in recent political conflicts, there is little appreciation internationally of how properly to assess cyber-conflict. We are now, in relation to the problem of cyber-warfare, at the same stage of intellectual development as we were in the 1950s in relation to possible nuclear war.”

One of the best-known cyber-warfare examples occurred in Estonia in 2007 when more than 1 million computers were used to launch a DDoS attack against government, business and media websites. Back in 2007, the Director-General of MI5 sent a confidential letter to 300 UK chief executives and security chiefs, warning them that they were under attack from “Chinese state organisations”.

Meanwhile, The US Defence Department's Quadrennial Defence Review was published this week. It also highlighted the growing cyber-threat, stating: “On any given day, there are as many as 7 million DoD (Department of Defence) computers and telecommunications tools in use in 88 countries using thousands of war-fighting and support applications. The number of potential vulnerabilities, therefore, is staggering.

"Moreover, the speed of cyber attacks and the anonymity of cyberspace greatly favour the offence. This advantage is growing as hacker tools become cheaper and easier to employ by adversaries whose skills are growing in sophistication", it continued.