While this is one the first times cyber warfare has actually occurred, it's starting to become a topic of concern in government circles. As a matter of fact, in April it was a hot topic at the NATO summit and an EU conference. China is also known to be actively seeking a cyber warfare capability and gets accused of hacking into other government's Web sites all the time.
Last year, Estonia suffered cyber attacks, which were allegedly facilitated by Russian Hackers, also. In an interesting development, Network World reported that they are sending cyber defense advisors to assist the Georgians.
Wikipedia has an interesting article (Wiki) on cyber warfare. It cites that McAfee stated in their 2007 annual report that approximately 120 countries have been developing cyber warfare capabilities designed to disrupt financial markets, government computer systems and utilities. The article also lists several examples of attacks, which many suspect were facilitated by the Russians or the Chinese, that have recently occurred.
The McAfee report surmised that cyber attack capabilities are becoming a global issue as well as a threat to national security. Current events seem to be making that prediction turn into reality.
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