Silicon Valley enlisted to fight cyberwar

The Pentagon has laid out ambitious plans for working with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to defend the US in the internet age, outlining plans to create a cyberguard and to test new computer programmes in a “cyber range” as it tries to stop hackers compromising national security.

Although they stopped short of saying that a cyberattack on the US’s security systems would amount to a declaration of war, military leaders said the US reserved the right to use “whatever response is appropriate”.

In its first, long awaited cyberstrategy, unveiled on Thursday, the defence department confirmed that cyberspace is the fifth domain of warfare – alongside air, land, sea and space.