RE banks and hacking: NPR had a discussion show on last week about "hacktivists"

[Skidmore]

which was very informative. I think it might have been "On Point." Not sure though. There was a point made that hacking, particularly hacking companies, occurs much more frequently than the public is aware. One of the guests of the show said that corporations and banks are hacked for customer information and then are routinely extorted by hackers. That these business/banking entities pay extorters to keep the hack from becoming public knowledge. That they build the costs of paying this extortion into their fees.

[alc]

1. how long before these are considered "acts of war"?

The pentagon is trying to get cyberattacks considered an act of war.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13614125

Would anyone be surprised if a simple hack in the future was classified as a cyberattack so they could ignore the attacker's rights? The articles I've read refer to specific types of attacks (e.g. cutting of power) and attacks from foreign nations. I'm interested to see if the pentagon report has limits or is very broad in it's definition.

This really shouldn't matter. If congress was required for going to war, then everything is already on the table as an "act of war". The president can currently go to congress and claim that a nation has attacked us and request congress declare war. He can do this for missile strikes, or cyberattacks, or because their leader gave the president the finger when they last met. Congress can agree or not to any of these. The new policy is an attempt to allow the president to go to war without congress and possibly to treat people/groups as war criminals for something else.

[Skidmore]

2. One of this show's guest was discussing cyberattacks as

being the new front in warfare. I wish I knew what show this was. I caught it after it had been on and was in and out of the car.

[alc]

3. I agree with that

It will be a critical part of future wars that involve technically advanced countries.