Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nonetheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by the situation. Thucydides, Speech of the Athenians [1] have the power, the capability, sitting in my home with my computer and my modem--if I only understood how to do it--to wage war. That is a very different environment than anything that we have experienced in the past. James Adams [2] Today we are on the verge of technological advances that will redefine how we wage war and, in many cases, blur the current line between economic competition and warfare. The technology which holds the most promise, as well as the most unknown danger, is the world of computer networks--cyberspace. With the proliferation of computers and ever-increasing computing power available to nearly every private citizen in developed countries, microprocessors have changed the lives of countless millions of people. The ubiquity of computing within business, finance, educational, and military institutions has raised concerns about the security of the data and tools upon which we have become increasingly dependent. [3] Many authors have expressed increasing concerns with our computer security. Some have speculated that an against the United States could disrupt electricity supplies and telephone service, interfere with air traffic control, cause leaks or explosions at chemical plants or refineries, and cause economic damage ranging into billions of dollars. [4] Likewise, other nations and transnational groups may have similar vulnerabilities the United States could exploit. Therefore, some people reason the United States should develop its own capabilities in the realm of computer network attack. In many articles and books, authors highlight the supposed elegance of bringing an enemy to his knees without firing a shot, instead rendering him defenseless and harmless by defeating his information infrastructure via surgical attacks. [5] The weapons of computer network include chipping [6] (inserting malevolent code into hardware during manufacturing), programming back doors to allow external control of a computer, and disseminating computer viruses. On the surface, these weapons appear to be nonlethal in nature, but they may have disruptive or deadly higher-order effects. Technologically capable nations are, perhaps by necessity, contemplating the addition of computer to their arsenals. During the Kosovo intervention, the United States attempted limited electronic attacks on Serbian computers containing banking records of Serbian leaders. [7] The United States is not alone, however. In 1995, the National Security Agency and Department of Energy estimated that more than 120 nations already had some sort of computer capability. [8] The People's Republic of China reportedly is studying numerous types of dirty war--asymmetric attack in today's military parlance --which include using computer viruses to pitch China's technologically advanced enemies into political and economic crisis. [9] The potential for such a crisis makes the application of computer network a very different sort of combat power than the kinetic weapons it may someday supplement or replace. Like kinetic weapons, a computer network can destroy both military and civilian targets. Unlike kinetic weapons, however, a computer network can reach across the world at the speed of light, invisibly transiting many international borders en route to its target. Like chemical and biological weapons, cyber weapons can target large masses of people in both military and civilian communities. Unlike biological and chemical weapons, however, they affect humans indirectly rather than directly. Cyber weapons thus share some similarities with weapons of yesterday, yet they occupy a completely new niche by their nature. …