Federal Government Responds to Computer Hacking and Cyberterrorist Threats

All over the world, there has been an increase in hacktivist related activity. It seems that every day there is news coming out about Anonymous or Lulzsec and their antics. One day the groups are taking down the Playstation network – and other days they are hacking in to corporate servers.

Even celebrities are getting targeted by hackers – as evidenced by the current News of the World scandal.

But these hacker groups – known for DNS attacks supported by drones of teenage boys, are child’s play when compared with the groups backed by international governments. China, in particular, has garnished a reputation of using hackers to infiltrate the computer systems of other governments (like ours).

So it seems that something needed to be done about it – and the time is nigh.

According to documents shared by the AP, the United States government is planning to build out its internal computer structure to respond to recent hacking issues. It will be tackling internal vulnerabilities – and also declaring the Internet a new domain for warfare.

There are concerns about the government tinkering in online spaces – the Internet has been long regarded as one of the last true bastions of freedom.

But William J. Lynn III, a Deputy Defense Secretary, came forward to share his thoughts on the movement. Lynn said, "Far from militarizing cyberspace, our strategy of securing networks to deny the benefit of an attack will help dissuade military actors from using cyberspace for hostile purposes."

And this move won’t be one that makes every hacking activity an act of war. According to Lynn, "Although it is certainly possible that a destructive or disruptive cyber attack could have an impact analogous to physical hostilities and therefore constitute an act of war, the vast majority of malicious cyber activity today would not cross this threshold, or justify a military response."

We’ll buy it for now, because it makes sense – the government is better off guarding its own network borders than in meddling in other affairs.

An official summary is expected for release later today, and we are standing by. In the meantime, for government institutions in need of server or computer rentals to back their aggressive new anti-hack strategies, consider us – we deliver internationally.