Sigh. As a citizen of Israel, I'm upset and somewhat worried about the "cyberwar" that has begun between Israel and people who dislike us. I have no doubt tha

Sigh. As a citizen of Israel, I'm upset and somewhat worried about the "cyberwar" that has begun between Israel and people who dislike us. I have no doubt that it's possible to wreak havoc on the Israeli economy given enough time, effort, knowledge and Internet access. That knowledge and access is now increasingly available in Arab countries, and there are plenty of people there who want to hurt us in some way. The Israeli government claims that they are taking such threats seriously, but I'm not convinced. Rather, I'm concerned that this is the beginning of a low-level online war that cannot end well for anyone. My concern doesn't, however, translate into support for online vigilantes who think that playing tit-for-tat games of exposing Arab users' accounts, credit-card information, and other data is acceptable or even desirable. Exposing the online data of innocent Arabs won't improve Israel's security, won't help to improve our image in the world, and won't deter Arab criminals who enjoy the publicity and notoriety of exposing Israeli credit-card numbers or bringing down our national airline's Web site. I'm all in favor of the Israeli government using its security knowledge to defend its citizens, or to attack our enemies. But it's going to be a nightmare for a lot of people, Israelis and Arabs alike, if we encourage in any way, shape, or form individual criminal acts and exposure of innocent bystanders' data.