A SCOT at the forefront of the international race to prevent cyber war has urged government and commerce to move to tackle the "growing threat".

John Howie, senior security director at Microsoft, told experts at a conference in Edinburgh that unscrupulous nations are developing technology that could shut down a country and throw society into the dark ages “within a month”.

Mr Howie, who addressed guests including chief superintendent Tony Mole of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said traditional username and password security for the internet will soon be useless and the first of a new generation of phones that will contain people’s access codes for internet services such as banking –- or possibly biometric recognition –could appear in shops within in a year.

Mr Howie, from Edinburgh, said the situation is now becoming critical and he compared the potential of a cyber attack as having the same effect of total loss of electricity.

“So much relies on the internet today. Within a week the hospitals and healthcare would collapse and drugs would run out. Within a month it would be like the dark ages. Confidence in the internet is declining just as it increases in relevance to our lives.

“Governments, industry and academia need to come together to chart a course to a safer online experience for everyone, and to detect, capture and prosecute would-be attackers.”

Bill Buchanan, professor at Edinburgh Napier University’s Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation, said: “We want to spearhead an integrated approach to understanding the risks and – most importantly – mitigating them.”