So Much for Low Key Cyber Approach

Some of my military public affairs contacts tell me that the Pentagon really, really wanted to take a low-key approach to the establishment of a new Cyber Command.

That strategy failed when a memo from Defense Secretary Robert Gates was leaked to about every news outlet on the planet, but despite the leak, Defense still handled the news in a reactive, rather than proactive manner.

This low-key policy can be traced to two primary public concerns: offensive cyber operations and the fact that the National Security Agency has been anointed as the big kahuna in cyberspace, raising all kinds of civil liberties concerns.

A Pentagon spokesman deftly dodged questions about offensive operations and when asked about NSA, said the formation of the new Cyber Command does not mean "the militarization of cyberspace."

Since I'm paranoid, I assume the NSA has the ability to listen to all my phone calls and has algorithms to detect key phrases in my e-mails, such as "NSA" in numerous e-mails I sent in reporting on the Cyber Command.

If someone at the NSA is indeed listening to my calls and looking at my e-mails, they may soon fall asleep from boredom.