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U.S. to View Major Cyber Attacks as Acts of War: Report
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has adopted a new strategy that will classify major cyber attacks as acts of war, paving the way for possible military retaliation, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The Pentagon has adopted a new strategy that will classify major cyber attacks as acts of war, paving the way for possible military retaliation, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. (AFP/File/Atta Kenare) The newspaper said the Pentagon plans to unveil its first-ever strategy regarding cyber warfare next month, in part as a warning to foes that may try to sabotage the country's electricity grid, subways or pipelines.
"If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," it quoted a military official as saying.
The newspaper, citing three officials who had seen the document, said the the strategy would maintain that the existing international rules of armed conflict — embodied in treaties and customs — would apply in cyberspace.
It said the Pentagon would likely decide whether to respond militarily to cyber attacks based on the notion of "equivalence" — whether the attack was comparable in damage to a conventional military strike.
Such a decision would also depend on whether the precise source of the attack could be determined.
The decision to formalize the rules of cyber war comes after the Stuxnet attack last year ravaged Iran's nuclear program. That attack was blamed on the United States and Israel, both of which declined to comment on it.
It also follows a major cyber attack on the U.S. military in 2008 that served as a wake-up call and prompted major changes in how the Pentagon handles digital threats, including the formation of a new cyber military command.
Over the weekend Lockheed Martin, one of the world's largest defense contractors, said it was investigating the source of a "significant and tenacious" cyber attack against its information network one week ago.
President Barack Obama was briefed about the attack.
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22 Comments so far
Show AllNow war is anything we want it to be.
Yep.
Major cyber attack = act of war. Minor cyber attack = terrorism. They got it covered.
Well then, the worm to disrupt Iran's computers was an act of war!
If the US wants to play this game, then we should not be surprised by attacks from countries that we have cyber-invaded. Remember the Stuxnet virus attack on Iran's nuclear labs earlier this year?
What goes around, comes around.
WTF you are 100% correct and it is very foolish for the Pentagon to take a position that is hypocritical in the extreme, especially when it practices what it preaches against.
Every day the empire displays a mentality that is more scary than the day before.
That is how I see it. Today it is an act of war inviting terrorist bombings from above to hack into computers UNLESS your name happens to be either USA or Israel. Tomorrow it will be considered an act of war to swear. And the next day it will be considered to give dirty looks.
In nearly all cases, hacking and cyber attacks are done by individuals, not states. Additionally, cyber attacks are hardly lethal. Attacking a computer network does not kill or even injure anyone! So, extending the definition of war this way, all sorts of completely non-lethan form of sabotage - which were an important part of the labor struggle in the past, will be treated as "war" and met with merciless and completely extrajuducial murder.
At last it is official policy:
An outcast teenager can start World War III from his basement.
Be the first on your block to destory the world!
The 2008 attack on the Pentagram was most likely China dancing through the Pentagrams computers.
The Pentagram will not send missiles to China but it might just accidentaly nudge an asteroid towards China.
I think the popular response is 'puff puff give', what the hell are you smoking that anyone on earth is nudging asteroids around in space and earth?
if ever present viruses are not permanent attack, what is
When the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. We can't fix infrastructure or education or poverty with guns but guns and bombs are all our leaders care about.
"the existing international rules of armed conflict — embodied in treaties and customs — would apply in cyberspace."
how quaint.
So this pathetic empire needs one more justification for bombing someone--anyone--anywhere--anytime. It's sort of like an aging bully who has beat up everyone and is now reduced to snarling and threatening from afar then wondering why no one wants to play.
Land of the free? Home of the brave? More like land of the oppressed, home of the scared.
Yes. This gives Obama the right to launch drone attacks against hackers the world over, from Russia to Australia, from Canada to Argentina.
No one messes with the USA!
The largest purveyors of violence in the world today and indeed in the worlds entire history. The Nation State Called the United States of America is a sick cancer that poisons the entire world.
Caligula was more "rational".
Wikileaks and other whistleblowers too?
Attacking a computer network does not kill or even injure anyone!
Using computers to shut down an electrical grid could conceiveably bring about the death of homebound elderly with O2 machinery, elevators, newer electric dependent telephony. Xray pictures and I assume MRI or other medical pictures are transmited by newer electric dependent telephony to someone off site to "read" them.
Decaring a war based on cyber attack is without question and act of dellusion and senseless application of power but the statement that it cannot be lethal has some qualifications.
Well then, I hope none of your relatives and loved ones depend on the electrical grid to live.
Once the government privatizes Medicare and Social Security, they won't have long to live anyway.
"It said the Pentagon would likely decide whether to respond militarily to cyber attacks based on the notion of "equivalence" — whether the attack was comparable in damage to a conventional military strike."
Anyone killed or injured? Buildings destroyed or damaged? Nope? Easy answer, then. Equivalent? It never will be.
Alternatively, if lives and homes are reduced to financial representations (which I suspect is what they really mean) and "damage" is assigned a dollar value, does that mean speculative bankers might be looking at a bombhole in the bumhole?
Hell, it's a new month. I'm in an optimistic mood...