Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at Reading University, warned the day will come when computer viruses can infect humans as well as PCs.

“We’re looking at software viruses and biological viruses becoming one and the same,” he said. “The security problems [will] be much, much greater… they will have to become critical in future.”

If humans were networked, the implications of being hacked would be far more serious and attitudes towards hackers would be radically changed, he added.