The Pentagon has a stern warning to anyone planning to launch a cyber attack on the United States: you attack us in the virtual world; we might just attack you in the real world.

One top U.S. military official put it this way (imagine him saying this in a tough Brooklyn accent), "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we put a missile down one of your smokestacks." It's pretty tough talk, and it comes just a couple of days after Lockheed Martin, one of the world's largest advanced weapons manufacturers, admitted it had been hit by a cyber attack earlier this month.

The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy is expected to go public next month but a couple of tidbits have come out early. The most noteworthy of which? Computer sabotage that is found to come from another country can constitute an act of war. U.S. officials use the term "act of war" because it's largely believed that only other countries have the resources to launch a huge cyber attack on the U.S. with any serious hope of success (although those dudes from Anonymous might be an exception).

Now, it's unlikely any country would openly admit to taking a shot at the U.S., but doing so quietly? Or funneling resources to a smaller group? That's another story...