Cyber Attacks Can Spark Real Wars

[Commentary] Ongoing cyber "hacktivism" has demonstrated three things that should cause nations to act.

• First, the ease with which the hacktivists have been able to steal data and to shut down Web pages suggests that companies (and perhaps governments) have not yet taken cyber security seriously.
• Second, the Arab-Israeli hacker exchanges have demonstrated again the lack of any effective international organization to assist in preventing cyber crime and de-escalating tensions among nations in cyberspace.
• The recent hacker exchange should also remind us that just as hacking could escalate to the use of conventional force in the Middle East, the reverse is also true.