China vs. U.S.: The cyber Cold War is raging

Experts say much more needs to be done by the government and corporations to ensure our national security.

"The problem is we have this thicket of 20th century rules that don't work in the 21st century," said Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security, in a talk last month hosted by analytics company Opera Solutions. "The concept of a 'person' as the only threat has lost is meaning. It may be a server; we can be at war with a network." In other words, protecting land, sea and air borders won't save you if your attackers are seconds away no matter where they are. For all the improvements that the government needs to make, the private sector lags further behind. A recent wave of cyberthreats began to scare corporations into beefing up their security, but companies have still been reluctant to spend. Still, experts say the nightmare scenario -- China disabling our defenses and attacking the country -- remains unlikely.