[briandear]

An attack, a malicious attack by a state actor, is an attack, cyber or otherwise. What if they hacked a hospital and somehow shut down life support systems, there's little moral difference than if they sent soldiers into the hospital. Whether we like it being framed militarily or not, this IS a military issue (if it's a state actor) as that's the point of the military to defend life liberty and property. However, that being said, this whole situation feels like a false flag to me, so I would suggest a highly considered response. If it is, in fact NK, then a military response is appropriate -- sanctions haven't done a damned thing ever. I am not suggesting carpet bombing the country, but certainly their must be real consequences -- otherwise what's the disincentive to do it again? However, I must reiterate, this smells like a wag the dog or a Gulf of Tonkin type situation. So I honestly feel like the best response now is no response until there is more information. Ultimately though, it's potentially a disgruntled employee, in which case it's a criminal matter as opposed to a national security one.

[zaroth]

> 'sanctions haven't done a damned thing ever'

OT, but have you read what's going on in Russian this last week? It's unbelievable how hard the sanctions have hit them, and how quickly. It's a huge story which has been drowned out in all this other noise. NK is obviously not Russia, being more insular makes it harder to sanction them.

The escalation of cyber warfare, the possibility of it all being a false flag, the idea of a military response to defend, exactly as you say, life liberty and property, the idea of a necessary response if sufficiently proven to be a state-sponsored attack... the idea of the network as a battle zone with governments playing offense and defense... it all gives me shivers.

As @unclebucknasty says, the drum beat has started. This is going to take us somewhere very interesting in 2015.

[kiiski]

I don't know what American news say, but from what I've gathered from Finnish news, the Russian troubles are mostly due to oil prices, and the sanctions have had very little effect.

[zaroth]

I was reading an article on telegraph.co.uk [1] which very much pins the Russian collapse on sanctions;

  After years of bluster and suggestions by Mr Putin that the US is a paper
  tiger, the Kremlin is now coming face to face with the cataclysmic
  consequences of what it has done by invading Ukraine and changing
  Europe's borders by force. By the same token, Washington needs to move
  with care since it would be a geostrategic miscalculation of the first
  order to push a nuclear-armed Russia too far into a corner, or to
  perpetuatue a cycle of grievance.

[1] - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11297770/Russia...