Writing , he says: "The government can be an essential supporting actor in the effort to secure American networks and to prevent intellectual property theft. But it can't, and shouldn't try to be, the orchestra conductor."

But Villasenor also has major legal and moral objections to Lin's proposals. Using the courts, to issue warrants for counter-cyberstrikes, he says, is flawed, "on ethical and many other grounds. Cyberattacks are generally crimes. The role of the courts includes deciding the punishment for those who have committed crimes. Courts shouldn't be actively authorizing people or companies to carry out criminal acts."

Villasenor calls the suggestion that companies get assistance from the NSA "alarming," and trying to avoid the constraints of humanitarian law "disturbing."

"Legal and ethical frameworks exist because they aim to ensure behavior befitting a civil society," he says. "Approaches that aim to avoid such frameworks, are, by their very definition, unethical -- and not at all 'virtuous.'"

Lin's responds that those are "all good questions," but he doesn't think they destroy his argument. Attribution, he contends, "might be an overblown issue. We can attribute some attacks to China. Yet the U.S. is unwilling to launch counterstrikes against China, since there are greater political and economic interests at stake."