penetrate to cause damage --- If "to penetrate to cause damage or disruption" is the basis for the definition of a cyberwar, what happens when the purpose was simply to penetrate to explore the network without causing any known or observable damage but may have placed a botnet waiting to "explode" at a later date? Is this an act of cyberwar or cyber-conflict? if no damage is caused (say by spear phishing) but simply to gather intelligence overtly, is this considered an act of cyberwar or not?

Source author: Bennette Thomas thomasb@dominica.gov.dm