Cybersecurity

On January 12, 2010, Internet search engine giant Google announced that hackers based in China had launched a cyberattack on its personal e-mail service, known as Gmail. According to Google representatives, the attacks seemed to target the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, raising suspicions that the Chinese government was behind the infiltration.

The Google incident was one of the most highly publicized cyberattacks in recent years.

Called by the Economist the "fifth domain of warfare, after land, sea, air and space," cyberspace has opened up new possibilities for international clashes.

According to a report on cyberwarfare on the television newsmagazine 60 Minutes, "[T]he people who do these sorts of things are no longer teenagers making mischief. They're now likely to be highly trained soldiers with the Chinese army or part of an organized crime group in Russia, Europe or the Americas."

Cybersecurity is a problem that should be dealt with on the highest possible level.
Richard Clarke writes, "No company, no matter how large, can defend itself effectively against the techniques of sophisticated foreign cyber war organizations and intelligence services. They must rely on the government to so do."

It has become evident that cyberwarfare has emerged as a very real threat to national security in the 21st century.

Some analysts have predicted that cyberspace will be the next theater of war. Do you think countries will wage cyberwars against each other?