Because of an unknown hacker's DOS (Denial of Service) attacks on websites based in South Korea and the United States, a key Republican lawmaker urged President Obama to raise international sanctions against North Korea or even launch a cyber counterattack against the communist regime.

The lead Republican on the House of Intelligence Committee—Michigan-based Representative Peter Hoekstra—claimed that America should carry out a display of strength and force against North Korea for its alleged part in the sequence of hacks that victimized countless commercial and governmental sites just last week.

In an interview conducted on the conservative "America's Morning News" radio show (that's also produced by the Washington Times newspaper), Hoekstra intimated that several unnamed individuals are currently examining and inspecting the cyber attacks and deduced that North Korea was the mastermind behind the whole operation.

The individuals that Hoekstra mentioned have alleged that the attack wasn't conducted by amateur hackers, and it was instead a state-sponsored act of cyber terrorism by North Korea itself, which was in direct opposition to what actual security experts investigating the matter have been stating. Hoekstra then added that North Korea had done what it supposedly did to send a "strong message" of challenge to both the United States and South Korea.

He afterwards concluded that there was a need for America, South Korea, Japan, and many other involved nations to confront North Korea via either an online counterattack or international sanctions before the communist country started truly damaging cyber terrorist operations like manipulating the electrical grid or shutting down whole banking systems within South Korea or the US. He even asserts that a miscalculation by North Korea regarding hacking operations could lead to the possibility of people getting killed.

Michael Malone, an ABC News commentator who billed himself as one of the country's most famous technology writers, echoed Hoekstra's sentiments in his column. He also believes that thousands could get killed in future Internet attacks; for instance, he alleges that hackers could, say, intentionally shutdown the electrical grid in order to kill babies in incubators or turn off life support systems within hospitals (Saddam Hussein was actually accused of this before the most recent Iraq War).

The botnet PCs utilized during the DOS attacks—most of it based within South Korea, China, and Japan, according to security analysts—were probably infected by the MyDoom malware that's typically found in email attachments. The worm contains instructions to propagate the attacks, erase parts of the computer's hard drive in order to prevent computer rebooting, and allows cyber attackers to remotely manipulate the infected machine.