More from mi2g on political digital attacks:

These adverse developments coincide with UK and Italy's support for the US policy on the war with Iraq and France's reluctance to join in. Politically motivated digital attacks have been the fastest growing component over the last year. Attacks against online computers belonging to businesses and governments mainly involve intelligence gathering, denial of service or piracy and mostly protest the war with Iraq and the US/UK alliance.

"There is an emerging correlation between digital attacks and physical terrorism," said DK Matai, Executive Chairman of mi2g. "We had noticed a sharp rise in digital attacks against Australia before the Bali bombings and against Italy before the arrests of terrorists from Morocco and Pakistan. Although the hackers and terrorists may not be part of a single command and control structure yet, they do appear to share a common ideology."

For the twelve trailing months, the number of verifiable and successful digital attacks against the US remain at an all time high of 43,802 with the UK at 7,516, Italy at 4,945 and France at 2,920. Any war with Iraq in March is likely to exacerbate the situation.