The emergence of the 'cyber cold war'

A spectre is haunting the West -- the spectre of cyberwar. It's now clear, according to American intelligence agencies, that the Russian government engaged in a campaign of hacking, email leaks and fake news in an attempt to undermine the American political process -- and steer the presidential election to Donald Trump. Russia has repeatedly denied the allegation.

But many are now asking: Are we at cyberwar? In the cybersecurity industry -- mostly made up of hackers and spies -- the conventional wisdom was that cyberwar is like physical war. It's only war when someone dies or something explodes. But what happened during the recent American election is forcing experts to revisit that idea. "'Nothing's blown up' is the old school way of thinking," said Dave Aitel, a former scientist at the National Security Agency. "But I don't have to blow something up to destroy your country. I just have to reduce trust in your national way of life."