In the wake of the increasing threat of warfare in cyberspace, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a Friday speech that cyberspace has become the battlefield of the future; and pointed to the fact that cyber-criminals have already launched attacks on banks and other financial institutions in recent past, and are developing the capability of hitting US power grids and government systems.

Addressing a business group in Virginia's Norfolk city, which is at the core of one of the biggest concentrations of military power in the country, Panetta said that combat in the cyberspace is one important area to which the US has "got to pay close attention to."

Talking about the extent of damage which "a cyber-attack perpetrated by nation states" can cause, Panetta said that such cyber-terrorist attacks can be as devastating as the terrorist attack on 9/11; and can "virtually paralyze the nation."

Revealing that Washington faces hundreds of thousands of cyber-attacks every day, Panetta - though refraining from specifying the country-of-origin of the attacks - said that Iran "has also undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage."

Furthermore, to draw attention to the increasing cyber-attack threat being faced by the US, Panetta said that even while he was addressing the business group, there probably were "attacks going on in this country, cyber attacks, on financial institutions, on banks."