Ghost in the machine

Neither country is a stranger to cyberwarfare. The South Korean Defence Security Command reported an average of 95,000 daily attacks. Some security experts blame North Korea,which has supposedly trained an elite group of hackers at Mirim College,its military school. In a speech in May,President Barack Obama called cyber-security one of Americas most serious economic and national security challenges.

Yet little hard evidence has emerged about the seriousness of the attacks or their origin. Plenty of people may wish to spoil Americas national holiday. According to Arbor Networks,a security firm,the attack was comparatively small scale. Setting up an attack takes a competent cyber-hooligan five minutes work on a laptop. It is not just the bad guys who can do it: Iranian government sites have been attacked during the countrys recent unrest. A popular post on Twitter,a social networking site,was Iranelection Cyberwar Guide for Beginners,highlighting a site compiled by a sympathetic Welsh civil servant.

The Economist Newspaper Limited 2009