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So a bunch of computer nerds hack into Sony and release emails and they are capable of launching 9/11 terrorist attacks? I don't see it.
Actually, hackers could cause some major issues for the US. They certainly can't crash an airplane into a building but there are numerous SCADA systems in America that are unprotected from cyber threats. or, the hackers could reach out to the CONFICKER owners, lease a portion of their computers and overload a number of servers that control anything from financial centers to sewage treatment plants.
Imagine what would happen if all of the sewage treatment plants were shut down in, say, New York City? Or if a portion of the Air Traffic Control System was taken down via cyber attack. The hackers could cause quite a bit of damage. Physically it wouldn't match the loss of 9/11 but psychologically it would likely surpass it.
If that happened, the ramifications would be immediate and very harsh for the state-sponsored entity that did this. That would be a direct act of war and not something the US president or congress would just accept. It is one thing to do that if you are just a collective of nerds dumping Sony's intellectual property, but quite another to destroy infrastructure with the purpose of killing Americans. Again, if that scenario played out with North Korea, they would get the worst of it in the end.
That makes the assumption that you would be able to publicly pin it to a nation-state actor.
US agencies could certainly determine who did it, but, publicizing that knowledge would give away our tactics, techniques and procedures used to hack into their networks.
The question then becomes, is it worth more to pin a cyber attack on a country or to retaliate in kind, with neither side being able to publicly place blame on each other.