London hosts security conference

London is hosting a conference focusing on fighting cyber-security attacks, the London Conference on Cyberspace. The event includes international attendees including William Hague, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and the EU digital executive Neelie Kroes.

Hague convened the two-day conference with a warning about the need for a "global co-ordinated response" on policy.

Hague said: "We want to widen the pool of nations and cyberusers that agree with us about the need for norms of behaviour, and who want to seek a future cyberspace based on opportunity, freedom, innovation, human rights and partnership, between government, civil society and the private sector."

But Wales, who founded open-source knowledge-base Wikipedia in 2001, opposed this view, warning against interventions which pose their own risks.

"The biggest threat to the internet is not cybercriminals, but misguided or overreaching government policy," he said.

The conference is being held just one day after GCHQ, a leading intelligence agency, described the levels of cyberattacks on the UK as "disturbing".

David Cameron appeared to back Wales' comments, too, stating that "governments must not use cyber security as an excuse for censorship."