Over the past two months, there has been a tremendous amount of chatter in the security community about the term ‘cyberwar’ and whether or not the US is engaged in a cyberwar. Mike McConnell (former Director of National Intelligence) wrote a pointed op-ed for The Washington Post claiming that, “The United States is fighting a cyber-war today, and we are losing.” His opinions are consistent with the current Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, whose February testimony to the US Senate stated, “Malicious cyber activity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication. While both the threats and technologies associated with cyberspace are dynamic, the existing balance in network technology favors malicious actors, and is likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

These statements spurred an excoriating response from the pages of Wired that, “The biggest threat to the open internet is not Chinese government hackers or greedy anti-net-neutrality ISPs, it’s Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence.” At the annual RSA security conference Howard Schmidt, the newly appointed White House Cyber-Security Coordinator stated unequivocally that, “There is no cyberwar.” Nonetheless in a Washington Post article on March 19th 2010 Ellen Nakashima dramatically points out the need for clearer cyberwar policies by pointing to US cyber operations already executed and that cyber actions are underway.

Various cyberwar definitions are hotly contested, even more nuance-laden and have a very material impact on the dramatic claims one might make. Below are several observations about cyberspace upon which all well-informed parties agree:

Click here to read the full posting on The Firewall at Forbes.com