A sign board of an anti-computer hacker is posted during a Secure Korea forum at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, July 20, 2009. -- PHOTO: AP
WASHINGTON - A LOT of people are saying this is cyber war.
Counterstrike extremely difficult
US OFFICIALS routinely refuse to talk about either computer defences or computer attacks America might have launched. But US offensive cyber retaliation could range from a passive intrusion such as listening in on a foe's communications to an attack that cripples an enemy's air defence systems to clear the way for a bomber attack.
A counterstrike on an attacker's computer network could be launched, Lewis said, but it would be extremely difficult.
But if the Internet attack on US Web sites was an assault by North Korea or some other foreign government, what good responses are in America's arsenal? 'The short answer is probably 'Not a heck of a lot,'' says James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Defence and cyber analysts said on Thursday that chances are high that very little eventually will be done to whoever orchestrated several days of attacks against Web sites including the White House and Pentagon as well as sites in South Korea. That's largely because the investigation is unlikely to figure out who did it.
But even if it's determined that another nation was behind the attacks, the possible responses are hardly warlike: trade sanctions, diplomatic protests or a complaint before the United Nations.
'You could eject an attache, recall your ambassador and throw out their ambassador,' Mr Lewis said. That's not possible with North Korea, he noted of a main suspect in the attacks, since Pyongyang doesn't have an embassy in the US.
But war? Military action? No one is talking about that. Any punishment needs to fit the crime, analysts said, and this doesn't meet the threshold of an act of war.
'I don't think this kind of attack merits the use of force,' said Kristin Lord, national security expert at the Centre for a New American Security.
'It's annoying, a little embarrassing, but it's not a big deal,' Mr Lewis said, meaning that no major damage was done.
But others think retaliation might be called for, strong enough to send a stiff message, perhaps even a similar dose of the US military's secret offensive cyber capability. -- AP
