The hacking of the International Monetary Fund, Central Intelligence Agency and Citibank computer systems has raised fears that the US is on the brink of a cyberwar for which it is woefully unprepared. To deal with this growing threat, the Obama administration’s strategy is to treat destructive state-sponsored cyberattacks as an act of war that may even result in a conventional military response. This approach unfortunately has an unsustainable double standard: while Barack Obama’s strategy treats cyberdestruction by someone else as an act of war, his administration’s actions imply that cyberdestruction by America is a normal covert action, equivalent to espionage.
國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)、中央情報局(CIA)和花旗銀行(Citibank)電腦系統遭到的駭客入侵，令人們擔心美國正處在一場網路戰爭的邊緣——可糟糕的是，美國對此尚無準備。爲應對日益增大的網路安全威脅，巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)政府採取的戰略是，把得到國家支持的、具有破壞性的網路攻擊視爲一種戰爭行爲，美國甚至可動用常規軍事手段予以反制。令人遺憾的是，美國的這一對策存在不可維繫的雙重標準：儘管歐巴馬的戰略把其它方面發動的網路破壞視爲戰爭行爲，但美國政府的所作所爲暗示，美國方面發動的網路破壞卻可算作與間諜活動無異的正常祕密行動。