The Pentagon will spend upward of $5.1 billion in 2015 on cyberwarfare,
The Washington Times reported.
Disrupting the computers and networks of enemy countries and terrorist movements is now an integral part of American offensive military capabilities,
The New York Times reported.
This capability, which first became widely known in 2012, is also seen as indispensable to U.S. deterrence, according to The Washington Times.
In operation Olympic Games, the cyberattack conducted in collaboration with Israel on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, the U.S. introduced the Stuxnet virus to slow Iran's atomic bomb-making program.
On Nov. 24, North Korean hackers broke into Sony's computer system and threatened the company over the release of a movie that portrays the country's dictator in an unflattering light.
On Dec. 16, the hackers further threatened 9/11-type attacks on cinemas if Sony went ahead with the screening. The next day, Sony announced it would hold off on the film's distribution. The U.S. accused North Korea of being behind the hacking.
On Dec. 22, North Korea's limited links to the World Wide Web were temporarily cut off. A State Department spokeswoman told reporters that sometimes what the U.S. does to protect its interests "may not be seen."
North Korean hackers are thought to be operating out of China.
To hide their tracks, those behind the Sony hacking used servers in Bolivia, Singapore, and Thailand. Taking down Pyongyang's Internet may have been intended to send a deterrent message to those involved, The New York Times reported.
The combined electronic and cyberwarfare operations of the military branches are based at Fort Meade, Maryland, The Washington Times reported.
Shawn Henry, now with Crowd Strike, a firm that helps companies prevent cyberattacks, and previously chief of cybersecurity with the FBI, said cyberassaults had the potential to cause mass destruction akin to conventional weapons.
He challenged President Barack Obama's characterization of the attack on Sony as cyber-vandalism.
Telling the American people that what Pyongyang did was the equivalent of graffiti rather than an act of war is deceptive.
"Call it what it is, so that the American public understands what the real risks are that we face," Henry told The Washington Times.
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