Politicians are backing a police plan to help businesses combat cyber-terrorism.

City of London Police are set to unveil their latest weapon to help businesses in the Square Mile beef up their cyber security next month.

The ‘cyber Griffin’ scheme extends the force's current counter-terrorism work.

The City of London police committee was given a briefing about the scheme ahead of its launch.

Police will offer public briefings, put staff through their paces and run advisory groups. Cyber security experts will brief City bosses and senior IT staff about the latest threats and ways to protect their systems.

Project Griffin started in the 1990s as a response to terrorism and extended into cyber security as criminals moved into digital crime.

Police commissioner Ian Dyson told the City of London’s police committee: “It’s about protecting the public.”

And City of London Police’s head of crime and cyber, Peter O’ Doherty, said: “We’ve clearly seen the movement of crime into the digital environment.”

He said the police wanted to extend the Griffin project to the digital sector.

Sergeant Charlie Morrison, from the police cyber crime initiative, told councillors: “We have many [company] HQs here - cyber attacks will route to us.”

He explained that 90% of attacks started with “engineering” like phishing.

“Generally, it’s the people we need to protect,” Sgt Morrison said, adding: "It can’t be left to businesses to look after themselves.”

He explained threats came from a range of people including “script kiddies” - younger people involved in coding, so-called hacktivists, “hooded” cyber criminals working alone who are financially motivated, and state actors.

The pilot will begin in the Square Mile - but is likely to extend as cyber crime does not recognise boundaries, the committee heard.

Cyber Griffin will help businesses with briefings and how to defend their networks, plus incident response and helping staff develop their skills.

Committee member Simon Duckworth asked if the "grassroots" scheme had the resources it needed. The police said they would be looking for financial support, but did not put a figure on the scheme's cost.