A new study suggests that under the right circumstances, terrorists could break into computer systems and launch an attack on a nuclear state – triggering a catastrophic chain of events that would have a global impact.

The United States and Russia are locked in a fundamental dispute over how to counter the growing threat of cyberwar attacks that could wreak havoc on computer systems and the Internet with Russia pushing for a ban on cyberwar tools and the U.S. arguing for treating the problem as a law enforcement issue.

The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The U.S. military has spent at least $100 million defending its computer network from and responding to cyberattacks which have ranged from the less serious all the way up to nation-state capabilities, according to a top official responsible for network security. Defense Secretary Gates has proposed further increasing the number of cybersecurity personnel in his new defense budget.

A new study lays out cybersecurity recommendations for the next U.S. president but getting the U.S. to prioritize improving cyber defenses and overhauling the vulnerable, dated information networks may not be easy amid economic turmoil and demand for a quick-fix stimulus.

International regulation must be improved to avoid internet crime, currently estimated at $100 billion in losses annually, causing global catastrophe, some of the world's top crime experts have warned.

At a conference on global risks and "planetary emergencies" like cyberterrorism, climate change, nuclear weapons and the world's lagging energy supply, participants were not particularly optimistic with some arguing that the prospect of a global “knowledge society,” also made billions of individuals into potential superpowers.

Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week.

Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the federal government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale.