For years one of the fundamental questions facing any tech reporter was about cyberwarfare. Did it in fact exist? Was anybody actually cyberwarfighting? Other than disaffected Chinese teenagers? Or did we just sort of want them to, because it would be cool?
When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a trap, they hacked into one of the group’s computers and altered information that drove them into American gun sights.
When President George W. Bush ordered new ways to slow Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb last year, he approved a plan for an experimental covert program — its results still unclear — to bore into their computers and undermine the project.