1)  Considering they are DoS attacks that are coordinated only at a rudimentary level they are more irritating than threatening.  I mean, they are supposedly hitting banks right?  How many of us in the last few days have had any trouble accessing our online accounts or going about our daily lives?  Probably an extremely small number

 

2)  Well, if its private websites that are being attacked by private entities then we don't "combat" it.  Corporate IT will do the combating in terms of securing or rebooting their websites and if they decide to try to press charges then whatever law enforcement entity has jurisdition will start a case if the cost of the investigation is actually worth the trouble.  DoS attacks are notoriously hard to pin down because of botnets and the ease with which people can hide behind proxies and other things. 

Short answer: not all that much if anything outside what normal computer crime receives.

 

3)  Umm... No.

 

I really don't get all the drama over Assange.  Yes, hes basically a douche with an axe to grind against the U.S. but he hasn't broken any U.S. laws.  The PFC who released the docs did.  That PFC will be punished.  The appropriate action is to address the security issues that resulted in the leak in the first place as well as conduct at least rudimentary investigations into things the public finds fishy to save face.  Since the stuff is already released it would go a long way toward rebuilding public sentiment if you at the very least APPEARED to care about some of the more damaging things coming out.  Calling for the messengers head is a needless exercise in making yourself look stupid because it doesn't actually fix anything but your own ego.  The senators, officials, and members of the press demanding he be killed, tried for treason, or silenced in some way look dumb, especially given the type of data actually released.  The way to minimize the damage in this case is to win the PR battle.  I don't think diving into the pool of outrage and insanity is the correct way to do that. 

 

All of this is moot anyway because Assange is just an arrogant figurehead anyway.  Arresting him does absolutely nothing in the actual publishing of the information via Wikilinks so the drama is not only stupid its completely and utterly pointless. 

The only US secrets were the shit we talk about foreign dignitaries.  And apparently the global intel community knows this and much, much more.  The "secret" is that us commoners aren't supposed to know the dirty laundry about global VIPs.

 

What is more embarrassing are details like Arabs siding with Isreal and pushing the US to bomb Iran while publicly denouncing US hegemony, or that China is helping NK make money by arming Iran with medium and long range missile tech while trying to woo the Arabs and Isreal and denouncing US interference in internal affairs.

 

Apparently the crime Assange committed in Sweden doesn't exist in the UK or in english common law, thus, the UK court system can only verify the merits of the Swedish evidence and not try Assange in abstraction to determine whether he should be deported.

 

Before saying that Sweden is siding with the US, Sweden is building quite a MENA diplomatic profile, is acting as a middle man for MENA environmental issues (including water, look up SIWI's recent water conference in Amman Jordan) and has a large Arabian population in Stockholm.

 

Arresting him could be a handout to the Saudis to exposing them to the Arab street.

 

But imprisoning him will make him a martyr and not only will Wikileaks get huge donations but 1000 copies will bloom.

 

And why is it governments can know the dirt on us but it is a crime if we know the dirt on them?

 

The revolution will be broadcast on YouTube.