Germany will create a new cyber-warfare defence centre next year to fight off espionage attacks, the German interior ministry said, according to Reuters. "We plan to create a so-called 'National Cyber-Defence Centre' in 2011," a spokesman told reporters on Monday. "It will work by bundling existing know-how in the area of cyber defence." As computer systems become more important to control essential services, from power grids to banking, computerised attacks are seen as becoming as important a part of nations' arsenals as conventional or nuclear weaponry. Britain announced a 650-million-pound ($1 billion) programme last month, labelling cyber security a key priority despite broad cuts to government spending, including on defence. Several Western security experts believe one computer worm, known as Stuxnet, may have been created by a national counterterrorism authority intent on crippling Iran's nuclear programme by sabotaging the industrial control system at its atomic energy plant in Bushehr.
