Will there ever be a Cyber War?

During the NATO Warsaw Summit cyberspace was recognized as a domain of operations reaffirming the necessity and requirement for the regulation of cyberspace as a potential operational environment for network-centric operations. It is linked with the fact that cyber-attacks of diverse types are continuously increasing in numbers, thus causing a significant threat to the uninterrupted functioning of governmental and public communication and information systems, data centres, financial and banking systems, national and international networks and infrastructure. This raises the question of whether it is a new domain of warfare. The paper analyses terms “cyber warfare” and “cyber war” in the contemporary context of cyber security and the forms and effects of cyber war.