Until recently, "cyber war" has been reserved for science fiction thrillers--like something you might expect from William Gibson. In the past few years, though, the concept has been
gaining more mainstream acceptance as a real possibility, but
a recent report shoots that theory down, claiming "It is unlikely that there will ever be a true cyber war."
To some extent, declaring that there will never be a cyber war is a matter of semantically splitting hairs. War is a game of capture the flag. A pure cyber war is like trying to have a pure air war, or a pure naval war. Although significant damage can be inflicted from the air, from the sea, or through a cyber infrastructure, troops still have to be physically present to take advantage of that damage and claim victory.
