Britain has a legal right to retaliate against aggressive cyber attacks with missiles, the Attorney General has suggested.

The most serious cyber attacks should be treated in the same way as armed attacks on Britain if they result in a high level of devastation, Jeremy Wright QC said.

It is the first time a Government minister has set out the UK’s view on the record.

Speaking to Chatham House, the think tank, on Wednesday morning, Mr Wright said: "Cyber operations that result in or present an imminent threat of death and destruction on an equivalent scale to an armed attack will give rise to an inherent right to take action in self defence.

"If a hostile state interferes with the operation of one of our nuclear reactors, resulting in the widespread loss of life, the fact that the act is carried out by way of a cyber operation does not prevent it from being viewed as an unlawful use of force or an armed attack against us.

“States that are targeted by hostile cyber operations have the right to respond to those operations in accordance with the options lawfully available to them.”