High street chains will be the next victims of cyber terrorism, some of the world"s elite hackers have warned.
They claim it is only a "matter of time" before the likes of Tesco and Marks & Spencer are targeted. Criminals could use the kind of tactics which crippled Estonia"s government and some firms last year, they warned. The experts were members of the infamous "Hackers Panel" which convened in London this week at the InfoSecurity Europe conference.
The panel includes penetration testers and so-called "white hat" hackers, who help companies tighten up their digital security by searching for flaws in their defences. Previous panellists include Gary McKinnon, known as Solo, alleged by the US government to have hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers.
The "hackers" usually remain anonymous, "for security reasons", but this year"s panellists agreed to break cover. First up was Roberto Preatoni, the founder of the cyber crime monitoring site, Zone-H, and WabSabiLabi, a trading site for security researchers.