Letters November 10: Cyberspace war could bring us to our knees

Although no one has been charged, there appears to be some evidence to suggest that the hacking of TalkTalk was carried out by three teenagers.

If this proves to be the case we should all be worried because it shows just how easy such hacking is. It is doubtful that these teenagers are budding Einsteins or Turings, who can solve quadratic equations standing on their heads. More likely they have had considerable practice tapping keys on a computer.

It has been stated on many occasions that future wars will be fought in cyberspace, bringing total chaos to the electronic world. I often wonder, in this day and age when most people pay for goods using a card, even for a £2.50 cup of coffee, what contingency plans the banks, utilities and supermarkets have at their disposal if their computer networks are infiltrated and closed down.

Could it really happen? The answer is almost certainly yes and probably one day will. The card users would be unable to cope. In fact the only group of citizens that could would be the elderly, who still prefer hard cash and always have “a bit put by for a rainy day”.

The country would be brought to its knees in a matter of hours without a gun being fired.