This week the Pentagon said that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, to which it may respond using traditional military force.

A manner, process, or method of performing an act or deed; habitual or vigorous activity or energy; movement; motion; a force that causes change.

Paradoxically, it was the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, an attempt to give statutory force to the common-law writ, which paved the way for its gradual erosion.