Wiredmikey writes "Deciding when malware becomes a weapon of war that warrants a retroaction in the materialistic world – for example, a missile – has become a necessary part of the canvass of soldierly doctrine. The Pentagon newly outlined (PDF) its working definition of what constitutes cyber-war and when subsequent soldierly strikes against examination targets may be square as result. The main issue is attribution of cyber attacks. The bureau of Defense is working to develop new ways to trace the objective source of an attack and the capability to tag* an attacker using behavior-based algorithms. 'If a country is going to fire a missile at someone, it better be sure it has the right target,' said one expert. A widely held misconception in the U.S. rule is our offensive capabilities provide defensive vantage by card attacker toolkits and methods in foreign knowledge engineering prior to them hitting our networks. So when do malware and cyber attacks become a weapon or act of war that warrant a real-world martial response?"

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