US 'to view major cyber attacks as acts of war'

[Joelcool7]

Well I agree with the US's position if another country attacks the US's infastructure via the internet or any other means that attack is an attack on the US's soveriegnty hence an act of war. The only problem is that the US is going to have a hard time maintaining diplomatic relations if they classify all acts of cyber attacks as acts of war.

China for example has attacked the US several times and many of her allies like attacking the Canadian Government's servers and trying to steal classified information from the US and Canada. What's the US going to do? Send a missile down China's smoke stack?

I think the US Government is doing the right thing by classifying such attacks as acts of war. However the quote about responding with missile strikes, lol the US can't attack China with missile strikes for its cyber attacks that would be suicide.

I think what the article was trying to say was that the US will respond to future cyber attacks with retalitory measures. Essentially warning say China that an attack on the US will be met with a similiar attack on China. Not sending missiles but say China hacks the US Government network steals information and causes damage. Instead of the US sending China a sternly worded email demanding they don't attack again, now the US will hack the Chinese Government's network steal info and possibly do damage.

Essentially the US is saying it will start retaliating in cyber warfare if attacked. I think the US military quote was probably taken out of context. Though if the US power grid was taken out by another country, then a missile strike would be justified. I mean look how much damage an attack on the US power grid would have. It would be just as big of an attack as firing missiles at the powerplants and taking out US infastructure that way.

Also this signifies that the US may be expecting an attack on a large scale. In which case I hope they respond approprietly!