Support for position that cyberattack is act of war

As far as trial balloons went, this one had the desired effect.

Apparently, a lot of Americans agree with that idea advanced to the Wall Street Journal earlier this week by an unnamed Pentagon official that "if you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks."

In fact, fifty-three percent of the people responding to a poll of likely U.S. voters voiced support for the position that a cyberattack on the United States should be viewed as an act of war, one that invites a traditional military response. Twenty-two percent said they disagreed, while 25% said they remained undecided.

More details about the Pentagon's new thinking into the question of cyberattacks and their consequences are expected to become available this month. For the record, a Pentagon spokesman said the upcoming report would flesh out "the idea that attacks in cyber would be viewed the same way that attacks in a kinetic form are now."

It's unclear whether the Pentagon was already tapping into an existing vein of public unease but the poll reveals that a large plurality of voters - some 45% - now view a cyberattack as posing a greater economic threat to the United States than even a traditional military attack by another nation.

The release of the poll results follows by only a few days the disclosure by Pentagon contractor Lockheed Martin of a "sustained and tenacious" hack on its computer networks. And on Wednesday, Google announced that hackers, apparently based in China, had targeted Gmail accounts of U.S. government officials and military personnel. The FBI has begun a probe. For its part, China denied the allegations.

Last year, the government established the U.S. Cyber Command to shore up America's cyber defense system. By many accounts, this remains a work in progress.