The Israel Defence Force is employing a former hacker to improve the security of its computer systems.

Known only as "Daniel", the new addition to the IDF is serving in a cyber-warfare unit in the Israeli Air Force, according to an IDF announcement on its website.

The 27-year-old has been writing code since the age of 12 and is now responsible for investigating security breaches.

He is also teaching his fellow soldiers how to be more effective cyber warriors.

"You can't learn most of this at university, but rather through reading and on the internet," he said. "This is our country; we have no other place and it was important to me to partake of this experience."

In the wake of a recent spate of "tit-for-tat" hacking incidents involving Israeli banks and other commercial institutions, the web is being recognised as an increasingly active front in the war against terror.

Perhaps the best known recent cyber-attack on a state was the Stuxnet virus that wreaked havoc on the Iranian nuclear programme at their Natanz plant.

Cyber warfare was a major theme of the 12th Herzliya Conference at the beginning of the month.