Lewis: U.S. not in a cyber war

Source: David Perera, Fierce Government IT.

The United States is not in a cyber war and cyber war likely will never occur independently of a physical armed conflict, said James Andrew Lewis, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ technology and public policy program.

There is cyber conflict, consisting of crime and espionage, but a war in which an enemy attacks U.S. data and physical infrastructure for political effect doesn’t currently exist, Lewis said in prepared remarks delivered May 13 to the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Cyber attacks themselves are not without risk to the attacker, Lewis noted. “An attack on critical infrastructure in the opponent’s homeland risks a significant escalation,” he said. An attack originating in cyberspace can also provoke a kinetic response.