McAfee warns of Cold War-style computer attack. The Santa Clara computer security firm concluded that countries like Russia, China, France, Israel and the United States have the technological capabilities to coordinate state-to-state online attacks and are quietly building their computerized arsenals.

“We believe we’re seeing something a little like a cyber-Cold War, where these nations have the ability to integrate these capabilities to their military strategies but are still very hesitant to launch these attacks,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee. “They know the Internet is the ultimate equalizer, and there’s still a great chance of a strategic attack blowing back and affecting the country that launched it.”

As the digital arms race threatens to escalate, the report’s authors expressed the most concern for the vulnerability of privately owned critical infrastructure, such as power grids, transportation, telecommunications, and health and financial services.

“There’s considerable evidence that vulnerabilities exist,” said UC Berkeley information management Professor Doug Tygar. The report, which collects interviews from more than 20 experts in international relations, national defense and computer security, also noted that politically motivated online attacks, network infiltrations and digital espionage are on the rise.