WORD OF THE DAY

Using computer technology to attack a country's government is known as cyberwar. Waging cyberwar on a foreign power might involve hacking its computer networks.

The term cyberwar is slightly different from other kinds of cybercrime, in that it refers specifically to politically motivated attacks on a state or government — or occasionally, on another organization. Today's spies might commit espionage, a form of cyberwar, by hacking into networks to obtain state secrets. The word cyberwar itself uses the technological prefix cyber-, combined with war, from the Old English root wyrre, or "military conflict."