Britain’s computer users are at greater risk of cyber-attack because “outdated” laws mean investigators are required to ask criminals and rogue states permission to interrogate their systems.

Leaders of Britain’s multi-billion pound tech industry have today (Mon) written to Boris Johnson urging him to rewrite the 30-year-old computer misuse act to provide tech firms with legal cover to help GCHQ and other Government agencies counter cyber attacks.

They say the “outdated” law was designed to protect telephone exchanges when only one in 200 (0.5 per cent) of people and has now been overtaken by highly sophisticated cyber criminals who are running rings round investigators who have “one arm tied behind their backs.”

There are 4.6 million online crime incidents every year mainly related to fraud but also including malware, hacking and sophisticated attacks by organised crime or rogue nations.

They cite Section One of the act which prohibits the