The USA needs a branch of the armed services dedicated to cyberspace.

Information systems in the United States of America (and the rest of the world for that matter) of both the armed forces and civilian networks are wide open to computer attack. Computers located in US army facilities are well known to be lying password unprotected. Sensitive information is open for public viewing. Were an enemy state to make a concerted effort to attack the US via the internet, there would not be much to stop them and the consequences could be dramatic. Even a simple denial of service attack would be enough to cripple the US government. Were a more sophisticated attack brought through the use of a virus or a worm, the damage could be widespread. The simple reliance of so many government agencies on the notoriously insecure Microsoft Windows operating systems is frightening in its own right.

Why can’t existing agencies not take on this task? The mandates for the CIA, FBI, and NSA are not specific to this task and thus their focus cannot be brought fully to the intricacies of this problem. Not only do defensive systems need to be in place, but we also must have to capability of disabling enemy systems via the internet.