A recent Mandiant Intelligence Center report has verified deep suspicions of Chinese military hacking of U.S. companies and infrastructure. Cyberspying attempts on American corporate computer systems have repeatedly been linked back to the People’s Liberation Army, but the personnel authorizing and executing the espionage have not yet been named.

A strong economic competitor, China has clear commercial motives for the cyberattacks, as they have a history of imitating new American technologies. In this digital era, hacking may become the new form of warfare between two nations as powerful as the United States and China.

Both countries are economically reliant on each other — China is the main purchaser of U.S. bonds and the United States is the main importer of Chinese goods — so economic sanctions would be the equivalent of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Each nation also has a nuclear arsenal large enough to destroy the world, so a military conflict is out of the question.

Cyberwarfare offers an alternative to get a leg up on the competition. The beauty of a cyberattack is how easy it is to obscure the attacker’s identity and how simple it is to wage. America doesn’t need battalions of troops or a large nuclear armament in this new arena; it needs the best and the brightest of computer hackers that can both defend and launch attacks. This may be a problem since oftentimes computer hackers are against many government actions, and would likely never work for the United States, choosing instead to join private groups like Anonymous.

The digital nature of this international threat can sometimes obscure its gravity, but make no mistake — cyberattacks are as big a threat as military ones in an age when much of our infrastructure, not to mention our personal lives, is dependent on digital networks. It would be one of our country’s most foolish failures if we do not recognize the reliance of our country on electronics. The massive caches of texts, videos, pictures, data and other private or secret information stored within our networks and servers is enough to topple the best, if not the worst, of us. If we continue to spend a majority of our defense budget on traditional methods of warfare at the expense of our digital security, we may risk falling behind in this cyber arms race.

A version of this article was published in the Thursday, Feb. 28 print edition. Email the WSN Editorial Board at [email protected].