§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they agree with the US Department of Defense official quoted in Aviation Week and Space Technology, 18th October 1993, page 29, who claims that "the next development in non-lethal electronic combat should centre on injecting deceptive information and computer viruses into enemy command, control, communication, intelligence systems", and if not whether they will consider an international convention to ban the development or, if already developed, the deployment of any such capabilities.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Viscount Cranborne)The Ministry of Defence is aware of discussions in the USA about "Information Warfare" and is therefore conscious of the need to protect its own computer networks from software attack and is working to put appropriate defences in place. The Ministry of Defence has a long-standing policy for electronic warfare but it does not centre on such measures as injecting computer viruses.
An international convention to ban such attacks would be difficult to enforce, especially as experience already shows that the majority of such hacking or virus attacks emanate either from young computer enthusiasts working from home, or from disaffected employees who attack their own companies' computer systems.