Description
For describing the misuse of the internet, words starting with "cyber...", like cyberwar, cybertheft, cybermobbing, are commonly used. Normally people then mean attacks through the internet, possibly by hackers.The prefix "Cyber-" probably became popular in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan started the Strategic Defense Initiative, which made a "cyberwar" possible. The program was frightening and mysterious because of its new unprecedented technical dimension.More than three decades later internet is everywhere and not really obscure to most users. But still people talk about cyberattacks rather than internetattacks. Using "Cyber-"words seems to be common only for describing the mysterious and bad stuff in the internet, but it is not used not for normal internet activities. For instance, you would never say "I bought this book in cyberspace".