06/18/2001 - Updated 10:58 PM ET Cyberspace is the next battlefield

By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY

ARLINGTON, Va. — They don't drive tanks, fly jets or even wear boots. But the computer technicians hunkered down in virtual foxholes in a pale yellow building here in suburban Washington might well be the frontline soldiers in the nation's next war. They work for the Defense Information Systems Agency, which figures that future conflicts won't be won by shooting down the enemy's aircraft but by shutting down its computers. Today, they defend the U.S. military's 2.5 million computers against hackers. But they are being trained to guard against computer attacks by other countries and to launch computer virus invasions that will bring chaos to a foe's communications networks, financial systems and power grids.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001