NEW YORK - U.S. military officials are looking to improve the nation’s cyber warfare capabilities and developing ways to open virtual attacks on enemies.
But first the military will have to find the proper borders.

“What do we regard as to be an act of war in cyberspace?” asked Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., who is head of the Air Force’s cyber operations command. “The military is not going to tend to do that (use virtual strike capabilities) until you cross some line that constitutes an act of war.”
Elder stated early uses would be restricted to distracting or killing data packets that threaten the nation’s systems; similarly, the military may catch a foreign ship carrying arms in international waters.

The comments came late Friday during a New York chapter meeting of the Association for Intelligence Officers, a non profit group for current and former intelligence agents and their supporters. In an interview, Elder said that in the future, the military might rely upon network combat to upset an enemy’s interaction system, replacing the need for usual weapons like bombs.  Elder also stated that in any such circumstances the military would be controlled by the same rules of engagement — such as requirements for an official announcement of war — that relate to conventional attack.
According to Elder, during the early days of the Iraq war, basic forms of cyber attacks were used by the United States like electronically blocking Iraqi military systems and using network attacks to hamper Iraqi ground units from communicating with one another. The military’s attacking capabilities have improved since then, he further added.

As the military more and more relies on networks and computer systems to communicate and organize conventional operations, the U.S. Air Force is planning to set up a Cyber Command by October for   future warfare that will be fought not only by land, sea and air but also in cyberspace.
Hackers in a foreign government or terrorist group can bring down military and civilian Web sites using what’s known as a denial-of-service attack — flooding the computer servers with fake traffic such as rightful visitors can’t get through.
The Chinese government has been alleged of using the Web to break into computers at the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies in what was dubbed Operation Titan Rain. Since 2001, Chinese “hacktivists” have organized attacks on and ruined U.S. Web sites to contest what they call the imperialism of the United States and Japan.
Elder also outlined several defensive initiatives aimed at deter ring cyber attacks on the United States.
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