In 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama launched a nationwide campaign to promote awareness of cybercrime after a series of major hacking attacks targeted government departments and corporations.

Government officials and security experts agree cyberthreats are becoming more serious, more frequent with diverse origins.

The planned coalition is at the center of an international cyberstrategy unveiled by Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III.

Lynn said the plan is to build a "coalition of nations (with a) mutual interest in securing cyberspace."

The event to launch the U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace was also attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

"The strategy the president is releasing today provides a framework for how we can expand this cooperation and establishes how network security relates to other critical areas of partnership," Lynn said.

Analysts said cybersecurity was a growing concern because the computer networks were widening with the growth of technology use in developing countries and emerging markets. Experts agree that cybersecurity is no longer the concern of only the rich and developed nations, said the analysts.

Senior foreign diplomats and representatives from industry, civil society and academia attended the ceremony.

The administration's importance to the issue was underscored by the presence at the presentation of John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, and Howard A. Schmidt, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator.

Clinton said the strategy's seven key policy priorities are economic engagement, cybersecurity, law enforcement, military cooperation, multiple-stakeholder Internet governance, development and Internet freedom.

"We are seeing cyberspace transform before our very eyes," she said. "Now we must shape this transformation."

White House officials said the U.S. strategy was a "first-of-its-kind policy document [that] offers our comprehensive vision for the future of international cooperation in cyberspace."

The administration says it is working with other nations but no foreign partners have been named.

Over the past year, Pentagon experts have worked with counterparts in Australia, Britain, Canada and the NATO alliance nations in Europe.

Lynn said no one nation can devise or enforce a sustainable solution. Analysts said the issues seen as critical to the U.S. military were also of interest to military establishments in friendly countries and the European Union.

"It is hard to overstate the importance of cyberspace to the Department of Defense or the need to engage our allies and partners to keep it secure," Lynn said. "Department of Defense networks are probed millions of times a day, and more than 100 foreign intelligence agencies have tried to penetrate our networks or those of our industrial partners."

Cyberthreats are growing more serious and more prevalent, Lynn added, and meeting them requires the cooperation of nations, the private sector and individuals.

"Our military continues to ensure that we can operate with secure and reliable networks, he said, "and maintain the capability to defend vital national assets."

He compared the rationale for joint cyberspace action to military cooperation in other spheres.

"Just as our air defenses are linked with those of our allies to provide warning of attack, so too must we share information to prevent and, if necessary, respond to cyber-intrusions," he added.

The Economist called cyberwarfare as "the fifth domain of warfare," a view echoed in earlier remarks by Lynn, who said cyberspace "has become just as critical to military operations as land, sea, air and space."

Last August, the United States for the first time named the Chinese military as a potential source of clandestine cyberattacks.

Cyberwarfare began in the 1980s and has involved attacks on computer infrastructures in Russia and the former Soviet Union states of Caucasus and Central Asia, Iran, India and Pakistan, among many other incidents.

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