This  inter action  of  the virtual and real economies  has created soft targets for Cyber attackers who want to attack the cyber space belonging to a certain real Community. An example of this is the series of defacement attacks on Indian sites by Pakistani sympathizers. 

Presently such attacks have been restricted to Government sites and aimed at gaining publicity. But soon they can get more sophisticated. Banks can be pushed to bankruptcy and stock exchanges can be strangled to death,  crippling the economy. The crux of this sort of attack is that a certain member of the Net community could be attacked because he is a recognized member of a real world nation. In such a case, it becomes the moral responsibility of the State to protect its Citizens. Just as the Air space  and Sea Coast is defended by the State for the benefit of its Citizens, it is necessary for the Cyber space also to be protected.

At present whatever discussion is there on Cyber Policing is to identify the Cyber Criminals within the Nation and punish them. There is no thought of how to punish attackers coming from outside the country particularly if they come from unfriendly or enemy territory. It is for this purpose that the nation has to develop a Cyber Army. Even if we donot have aggressive intentions, the army should rush to the assistance of  any Netizen who is also the Citizen of the Country when his cyber space is attacked. Such action should be to provide a protective umbrella against future attacks, restore data to the extent possible and identify vulnerable areas which need to be protected. Since the Government  controls the international Internet gateway and wants to have surveillance ever the activities of the Netizens, it should also see if it is possible to use this control to prevent attackers from gaining entry to Indian Cyber servers

To prevent future attacks, the attackers have to be identified and “Hot pursued” to their origin. If the corresponding Governments donot cooperate in destroying the attackers, there may even be a case for a Cyber war to be declared against such a country to make them see reason.. This is a “National Defence Project” which has to be undertaken only by the Government.

Simultaneously, there can be a helping hand from the community in the form of one or more “Computer Emergency Response Teams” (CERT) to be maintined by civic action groups supported by Software companies. These CERT s can undertake community education programmes to improve the defence levels and also help the National Cyber Army in emergency operations at the local level.   

Thus the combination of   the CERT and National Cyber Army can provide effective cover for the Cyber establishments such as “Online Trading Sites”, ”Online Banks” and other “Online  E-Commerce Services” which may be with private people but are sensitive to the economic stability of the country.