From the Wall Street Journal: Alleged attacks on Google Inc. from China redraw the battle lines between the U.S. and its former Cold War adversaries, who are now squaring off on a new front: cyberspace…

Past attacks directed at the private sector—like Chinese and Russian efforts to surveil the U.S. electric grid and Chinese penetrations of the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter program —have had a more direct connection to national security. The Chinese and Russian governments have denied any involvement in those attacks…

Cyber attacks have become of such concern among the U.S. military and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that, as a part of an overhaul of NATO’s guiding strategy, the alliance is expected to debate whether a cyber attack should be covered by the NATO charter, which dictates that an ‘armed attack’ on one ally must be treated as an attack on all.

Several Chinese military departments are responsible for components of cyber spying, such as the General Staff Department Third and Fourth Departments, according to the U.S.-China Commission.

Together these divisions oversee electronic spying and attack efforts, as well as research and development. Some Western analyses of the Third Department say it maintains a staff of 130,000 people. (photo: Murdo MacLeod)