Most of us are familiar with the conflict scenarios most likely in South Asia: a Mumbai 2008-style terrorist attack; a cross-border shelling and incursion, such as the Kargil skirmish of 1999; armed clashes between government forces and militants, in Kashmir or Baluchistan; nuclear missile exchanges between India and Pakistan; or civil war such as the one that engulfed Sri Lanka for decades.

In advance of a United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Mexico last October, ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré said his goal was to have a “cyber peace treaty.” This followed up on his stated desire to achieve an international agreement in which nations pledged not to cyber-attack each other.

In the 2008 Russia-Georgia crisis, Russian computer programmers, known as crackers, timed cyber-assaults on Georgian government websites to coincide with the Russian military’s ground invasion. The attacks, while apparently decentralized from and unsanctioned by the Russian command, were a proof-of-concept for a new form of warfare.

Internet experts consider China to be one of the most active leaders in cyber espionage. According to one computer security company’s estimate, there were 128 cyber intrusions per minute from Internet addresses associated with China in 2009. Among the most threatening of those intrusions came from “GhostNet,” a Chinese cyber espionage ring designed to break into sensitive U.S. government networks.

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