Should Hacking Be Considered An Act of War?

China has apparently added a unique new weapon to its sprawling arsenal. A new report from U.S. security company Mandiant reveals a new Chinese military unit dedicated to carrying out hacking attacks against Western targets that include major corporations and industries. Such a move is almost unprecedented and exemplifies how conflict is evolving into the digital realm. It has become all too easy for a hostile nation to target another's infrastructure though the internet. As nations grapple with this new threat, legal and political experts are widely speculating on whether network attacks constitute an act of war, and if so, how best to combat the myriad threats coming from any potential digital attacker, regardless of whether the attacker is aligned with a nation state or stateless actor.

Understanding what exactly hacking is and how it can be used to attack a nation is the first step to answering this tricky question. The problem is not all hackers are strictly malicious. Hacker circles typically define themselves by using colored hats a metaphor. White hats, for example, are those that are capable of accessing systems without authorization, the essence of hacking, but do so in order to test security capabilities as part of an official capacity. White hats are also computer engineers that utilize open-source systems that are collaboratively modified over the span of their use. Black hats are malicious hackers that illegally access systems with the intent to steal, modify, or destroy information stored within. Gray Hats fall in between these groups. They often act illegally or without authorization, but not in a malicious manner. Many are simply hacker that tries to crack security just to see if it is possible or try to discover major flaws for increased awareness. Where critical infrastructure or military secrets are concerned, black and gray hats are the ones to worry about.