A paralysing barrage of electronic cyber attacks has been let loose on government computers and networks in the US and South Korea, including the White House and Pentagon, underscoring the growth in assaults against vital state infrastructure.
South Korean intelligence officials quickly pointed the finger at North Korea, or pro-Pyongyang forces. But computer security analysts in Seoul said that they had tracked the attack as an updated version of the Russian MyDoom virus ? the world's fastest spreading virus when it was first unleashed in 2004.
Cyber warfare is rapidly becoming one of the world's most contentious security issues, with the US and Russia split over whether a treaty is required to formally ban it in international law, in a similar way to chemical weapons.