The new MAD

The tenants of MAD still apply mostly to the Nuclear world but I've often wondered when MAD will become synonymous with a series of botnet deployments. And at what point does a botnet become the next Cuban Missile Crisis? When do Kaspersky and Symantec become Blackwater?

I found some reading from Schneier and John Robb on the topic (be sure to read the comments). Cheers, -Ali