Do cyberwars really keep us from fighting?

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As if there aren't enough things to fight about, there's now the Internet. For the past two years, at least, the United States and Iran have been waging war against each other in cyberspace. This against the worldwide background of state sponsored Internet attacks, stealing secrets and military cyber espionage.

First off, the US and Israel developed what is being called the world's first cyber weapon, Stuxnet, a clever computer worm that is thought to have been injected into the computers of Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities causing the centrifuge machines refining uranium to break down.

And there's a lot more to come. The New York Times detailed in the summer how US President Barack Obama agreed to continue with Operation Olympic Games, a project that gave birth to Stuxnet and its family of smart Internet bombs, Duqu, Flame and Gauss.

Stuxnet escaped its nuclear enrichment facility in Iran and now inhabits the Internet, where spyware giants Kaspersky and Symante care are examining how to defuse it.

It's no wonder Iran announced recently it was shutting down the Internet and starting all over again, with a kind of intranet. The country has responded to the attacks by setting up a military cyber unit, encourages its netizens to hack the West, and orchestrate denial of service attacks against US banks.

With China and the US it's not all-out war, but it's not peace either. Google's claim that it was attacked by Chinese hackers is just the tip of the iceberg, as the US claims its military, energy and other vital interests are being targeted. China says the same about the US. It would be surprising if it wasn't so.

Cyber space is being weaponized.

The thinking here is that it is better to have virtual wars rather than real ones, that cyber weapons can be relied upon to stop nations from launching nuclear weapons.

At which point it sounds like Dr Strangelove again.

About the broadcaster:

CJ Henderson is a foreign expert for China Daily's online culture department. CJ is a graduate of the University of Sydney where she completed a Bachelors degree in Media and Communications, Government and International Relations, and American Studies. CJ has four years of experience working across media platforms, including work for 21st Century Newspapers in Beijing, and a variety of media in Australia and the US.