No rules of cyber war

President Barack Obama’s promise of an American response to the apparent hacking of Sony databases by North Korea has Washington squarely confronting a new national security reality that has been the subject of mostly abstract debate for more than a decade.

“Unlike plans for possible conventional military attacks in hotspots, the US doesn’t have off-the-shelf response plans for cyberattacks of this sort,” said Matthew Waxman, a former senior State and Defense Department official. With limited experience to draw from -- the Sony attack has no clear precedent -- Administration officials have struggled to define different kinds of cyberattacks and how to respond to them. International law and the laws of war offer only partial guidance, experts say. And strategic thinking about how to punish a hacker without inviting an even more damaging response is still evolving.

[Dec 24]