Cyber Cold War looming for U.S.

• Position: Worldview - Cyber attacks

Cyber attacks of various sorts have been around for decades. The most recent--and very dangerous--escalation in the past few years has been marked by counties launching attacks against other nations, such as Stuxnet, the nuclear plant-disrupting worm the Iranians have blamed on Israel and the U.S., while others are pointing the finger at Russia.

Military ethicist Randall R. Dipert, professor of American philosophy at the University at Buffalo (N.Y.) and one of the founders of the National Center for Ontological Research, indicates that we have good reason to worry, because cyber attacks are almost entirely unaddressed by traditional morality and laws of war.

"The urge to destroy databases, communications systems, and power grids; rob banking systems; darken cities; knock manufacturing and healthcare infrastructure offline; and other calamitous outcomes are bad enough but, unlike conventional warfare, there is nothing remotely dose to the Geneva Conventions for cyberwar. There are no boundaries in place and no protocols that set the standards in international law for how such wars can and cannot be waged.

"In fact, terms like 'cyber attack; 'cyberwarfare,' and 'cyberwar'--three different things with different characteristics and implications--are still used interchangeably by many, although they are three distinct entities." Dipert explains that, while the U.S. is not the only target, it is a huge one and "our massive systems offer the biggest payoffs for those who compromise them."

He points to a few of the many fronts on which the...