I think the ability to attack and shut down any nation’s server/communication hubs is not something to be taken lightly. For the past 15 years we have seen Russian criminal intrusion into various aspects of our internet operations, from banking to retailing and quite possibly national security and information highways. The Chinese have been investing heavily in this kind of warfare too, so let us not forget that. And that means we are going to have to invest heavily in R&D – top secret level – for new kinds of hardware and, most importantly, new operating systems that can be proprietary for DoD.

No one can crack code that is completely unfamiliar to them. We have the world’s best universities and should be going to that well in a big way. Except that I would not hire foreigners for this task. The grad students and doctorates who sign on should be squeaky clean and can get a top security clearance for this work.