The government plans to roll out an early warning system for digital attacks to all local authorities next April, paving the way for a national resource extending to the private sector.

Because of the increase in online attacks, the government is pushing for the development of a country-wide network of inter-connected advisory units, called Warning, Advice & Reporting Points (Warps). Each Warp will be made up of groupings of organisations with a shared interest.

According to experts, this type of information-sharing network could help firms improve their security practices. Ben Brierley of trade body Intellect said, "It gets the right information to the right people." He added that subscribing to such a unit could prove more cost-effective than some of the larger schemes available. "You can get information about the specific tools and systems in use within your community."

A pilot project for London boroughs, London Connections Warp (LCWarp) will be rolled out to local authorities nationwide in April. The scheme could then extend to the private sector through chambers of commerce, according to government adviser Jeremy Ward of security firm Symantec. The government is to fund the local authority Warps, but any private sector scheme would be financed through corporate sponsorship.

Mark Brett, LCWarp programme manager, said the Warp scheme meant alerts were likely to be taken more seriously. He added that early tests showed managers often responded to Warp advisories even though they had ignored previous warnings on the same matters from their own staff.

Linked to international warning bodies, including Cert, the Warp units will provide threat assessments and statistical data, and will identify trends and new vulnerabilities in an effort to stop attacks spreading.

Each unit's staff will be familiar with the needs of the community it serves, to ensure only relevant warnings are passed on to members. Warps could serve large individual organisations with many branches and customers, or focus on geographical areas, trade groups, or specific sectors, such as online banking customers.

Current government efforts rely on the Unified Incident Reporting and Alert Scheme (Uniras) run by the government's computer emergency response team.

But at present this system only offers threat data to government departments, agencies and - in some cases - suppliers, and critical national infrastructure organisations, such as emergency services and firms in the financial sector.

The London pilot team is working with Microsoft to develop an online reporting system, which is due to launch by Christmas.