Analyst's note:  Col. Kenneth Allard provides necessary insight into several absolutely troubling scenarios.  Please read the entire original article and learn why the long-term implications for American business in this new age of "Industrial Cyber-War" are even more troubling as the potential targets are endless.  The questions Col. Allard addresses are:

Q. Should we be worried about cyber-attack?

Q. Haven't we heard this kind of scare-mongering before?

Q. So is this just another big problem for the US Government?

Q. But what if my IT people say our firm is well-protected?

Q. What about those longer-term challenges to American business?

For additional perspective I recommend an internal site search on the term "Stuxnet".

"The buzz began in the geeky chat-rooms of the computer security community before spreading to the newspaper technology pages: Iranian computers had again been targeted by spy malware. Now the worm is a wickedly sophisticated Trojan called Flame, launched well under anyone's radar. The usual experts think Flame may have been burrowing into Iranian mainframes for over two years, mining treasure troves of data on the regime's nuclear programs.

But then came an even more stunning revelation: The cyber-attacks were part of a White House operation begun under President Bush but personally prosecuted as an industrial sabotage campaign by Barack Obama. Friday's story by David Sanger coincides with his new book, Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. Although the book's printing was complete long before the Iranians discovered Flame, Sanger's NYT story contains rich details concerning the release of the original Stuxnet virus, well-publicized after being discovered in 2010. But by then the secret sabotage had already been done, damaging over a thousand Iranian centrifuges used for uranium enrichment. 

Although its timing may have been accidental, the one-two punch of Stuxnet and Flame creates immediate speculation about retaliation. Forensic experts are hinting that Israeli finger-prints are all over Flame. Long before Sanger's latest revelations, Iran regarded both Israel and the US as mortal enemies; either one or both might conceivably be targeted in a counter-attack.

The immediate questions for Mr. Obama as the nation's First Cyber-Warrior: Did none of his advisors tell him that we citizens of the Great Satan have an Achilles heel? That while American society depends more on computers than any other, that the security of our cyber defenses has never been more in doubt - as Mr. Obama's own cyber-czars have told us repeatedly? Might a counter-attack by the Iran's outraged mullahs be the long-prophesied Electronic Pearl Harbor - or would Electronic 911 be the better metaphor?

[....] After 30 years building business intelligence and security architectures, my friend John Thielman has even more persistent nightmares. "A lot of corporate security is just wishful thinking, often compromised by competing for information in a very insecure world. Your personal banking information can be captured at the ATM or the gas pump. But our corporate executives routinely send sensitive data over laptops using unsecured WiFi networks. Ever wonder who else is taking notes?"

He assesses American business as a big, soft target getting softer every day. But however inadvertently, President Obama has just catapulted us into the new age of industrial cyber-war, synonymous with wrenching institutional re-adjustments. And sooner rather than later.