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The threat to cyberspace now rivals that of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. That is the message in the latest effort to rouse the public from slumber induced by ignorance, indifference, apathy, confusion and denial. Government is inundated with reports and studies from think tanks, academia, prestigious government research agencies and the cybersecurity industry—each decrying the weak and deteriorating state in our cyberdefenses and proffering advice to the new administration.

The U.S. Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) is building a prototype network capable of morphing over time to confuse cyber intruders and thwart attacks on military networks. The Morphing Network Assets to Restrict Adversarial Reconnaissance (MORPHINATOR) prototype is scheduled to be available in the 2014 fiscal year and will be capable of pulling a cyber bait-and-switch on unsuspecting network intruders.

Navy commands change how they operate, secure and defend data.

Network systems are similar to icebergs. Less than 10 percent of their volume is visible to the user of an application. Almost all of the hidden code, measured in hundreds of thousands of lines of logic, is invisible in the operating system, in the database management software, in security safeguards and in communication routines. The problem with such software is that for each application—and the U.S. Defense Department has more than 7,000 major software projects—contractors will develop the hidden coding to suit separate requirements.

European nations bordering Russia face costly challenges in building cyber-resiliency, with Finland and Estonia leading the way.