As a newbie to this forum, and the world of computers in general...I hesitate to post a reply with all the flaming going on...please, don't hurt me.

I would like to make a couple of points.
first, from the article...
Mr Clarke refused to say what level of cyber-attack might lead to a military strike. "That's the kind of ambiguity that we like to keep intentionally to create some deterrence," he said.
I felt that pretty much summed it up.

Second, I would like to point out that pretty much every hacking tutorial and FAQ that I've read states somewhere "Leave government systems alone". Perhaps the government should take a minute to read the information on hackers that is out there...and stop passing judgement on an entire group of people based on a stereotypical definition!!!


I would also like to draw your attention to a link at the bottom of the article titled "US hackers could face life sentences" ( http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129590 )

We barely have the facilities and resources to hold the people that truly deserve to be there...do we really need (or want) to spend our tax dollars to eliminate the curious and the smart people from society? (talk about damaging the gene pool!!!)

Just wanted to say my piece.