UK facing a year of cyber attacks by North Korea, says former intelligence chief

A former intelligence chief has warned the UK faces the risk of "more destructive" cyber attacks from North Korea in the next year.

Robert Hannigan, ex-director of GCHQ, told a cyber security summit in London: "The technical sophistication of the threats is going to get worse. We'll see a greater scale of attacks."

The prediction comes after UK security minister Ben Wallace last month blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for an attack on the NHS in May.

He said he believed "quite strongly" that the North Korean government was responsible for the attack, which saw hackers shut down thousands of computers and demand cash for them to be unlocked.

Estimates suggest the 'WannaCry' hack led to somewhere between 7,000 and 20,000 appointments were cancelled as a direct result.

Mr Hannigan, who quit the top security post in January, said he was concerned about the growing "overlap of state and crime", pointing to the possibility of a cyber attack by terrorist group Isis.

"WannaCry was a reasonably sophisticated tool, used rather ineptly. They will learn from that.

"Groups like Isis love the idea of a destructive attack. They are a very long way from having the capability but it is bound to happen at some stage."