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Agents and analysts from MI5 and GCHQ will work side-by-side with private sector counterparts in a new government “fusion cell”.

Under the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP), private firms will be given access to a secure web portal, described as a “Facebook for cyber security threats”.

It will operate on social network lines, in which more than a dozen analysts, based at a secret location in London, can choose who they share information with.

The partnership, due to be launched today, will provide industry figures with a specialist forum to scrutinise online attack techniques, the methods used by cyber terrorists and how authorities can counter them.

Security officials said last night that while industry representatives will not have direct access to classified intelligence material, they will have to undergo high-level vetting.

“What the fusion cell will be doing is pulling together a single, richer intelligence picture of what is going on in cyberspace and the threats attacking the UK,” said one senior official, who declined to be named.

“What we are trying to do is get that better intelligence picture and push it out to industry in a way that they can take action on, so it is very action-orientated.

The initiative came after talks in 2011 between the industry and Prime Minister David Cameron and led to a pilot project last year involving 80 leading companies, code-named Programme Auburn.

It will now be established permanently and expanded to cover 160 firms from the finance, defence, energy, telecoms and pharmaceutical sectors.

With firms deeply reluctant to discuss cyber attacks or breaches of security in public, officials acknowledge that confidentiality is crucial, so companies involved will not be named.

One official added: “Everything about information-sharing has to be based on trust. Most companies still remain cautious about talking about the cyber threats they face in public.”

It is expected that other firms will be invited to join the scheme, although officials stressed that future expansion would not compromise confidentiality.

Last year the Director General of MI5, Jonathan Evans, warned that an “astonishing” level of cyber attacks from enemy states and criminals was threatening Government secrets and businesses.

He said vulnerabilities in both state and commercial systems were being “exploited aggressively” by thousands of hackers and the security agency alone was investigating “cyber compromises” in more than a dozen companies.

It is estimated that Britain suffers more than 44 million cyber attacks a year – the equivalent of 120,000 a day – which is estimated to cost the country up to £27 billion a year.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has told The Daily Telegraph that not an hour goes by when a system in the UK is not being attacked.