Harvey's statement confirms what might be suspected about the U.K.'s attitude to cyber-warfare at a time when it has pointedly commented on numerous recent incoming attacks by foreign powers on its infrastructure.

These have included at last February's Munich security Conference that U.K. Government departments were regularly being attacked by one or more unnamed foreign powers.

Last November, Armed Forces Minister Harvey used a speech to signal the U.K.'s growing exasperation with the level of cyberattacks being directed at the country, suggesting that cyberattacks be treated as acts of aggression subject to international treaties, including the mutual military defense pact on which NATO was founded

Harvey's latest comments go further than any previous statements by a U.K. politician, however, including those made by in which he said the country possessed the capability to strike against its enemies in certain circumstances.