SAN FRANCISCO - Overblown talk of full-on cyber war between nations fueled by recent attacks like the computer worm Stuxnet could hamper Internet security efforts, officials and experts warned Tuesday.
Serious attention should be paid to threats of cyber-attacks from hackers, spies and terrorist groups but not to the extent of mass hysteria, speakers at the premier RSA computer security conference in San Francisco said.
"Cyber war is a terrible metaphor," said White House cyber security czar Howard Schmidt. "Don't make it something it's not."