File Under: Cyber War: This Could Be Big, or Dry Run?..

Foreign hackers attack Canadian government Excerpts:
An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government from China has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information, and forced at least two key departments off the Internet, CBC News has learned.
..
Highly placed sources tell CBC News the cyberattacks were traced back to computer servers in China.
But they caution there is no way of knowing whether the hackers are Chinese, or some other nationality routing their cybercrimes through China to cover their tracks.
And:
..Sources have confirmed the attackers successfully penetrated the computer systems at the federal government’s two main economic nerve centres, the Finance Department and Treasury Board.
The hackers apparently managed to take control of computers in the offices of senior government executives as part of a scheme to steal the key passwords that unlock entire government data systems.
And:
For years, experts including the federal auditor general have been warning that security on the government’s networks is woefully inadequate and open to cyberattack. (This is why it will be disastrous for many, many governments and organizations is some full scale cyber war does erupt..)

For a trial run, this was pretty successful, as the next several attacks on slow-to-non-responsive governments or organizations targeted by these hackers will be. I'm guessing the next attack will be larger in scope, "show-ier," and more widely covered in the press. This is not to say that this attack won't be heavily covered in the press: It's fairly new, and has not completed one news cycle yet, but having said that, each time these hackers strike, the impact will be larger than the time before..