There is a low human life factor in information warfare. This makes response difficult for nations without strong information warfare capabilities. The urge to respond using industrial age warfare techniques will be great, but justifying such responses will be difficult unless the value of these information systems is declared before they are attacked. This type of warfare is waged to erode a nations strength, destabilize its economy, or threaten its autonomy. Such responses might be necessary and I am certain they will be advocated by many policy makers should the circumstances arise.
Information warfare is inexpensive.
If you want to attack the heart of an industrial nation, you must shut down the factories, which can be quite expensive since you have to physically destroy them. If you want to attack the heart of an information economy, you must shut down, destroy or reduce the flow of information. Though the organizational process and technical expertise behind information warfare may be complex, the actually cost is relatively small. Information warfare is timely and it is not location specific. Information warfare can be waged at the drop of pin, to steal an analogy from the telecommunications industry that would be a probable target of such an attack.