'Making as Many Problems as We're Solving'

“[A breach in] cybersecurity will be the next Pearl Harbor.” While not original (Win Schwartau, president of security consulting firm Interpact Inc., claims to have coined the phrase "electronic Pearl Harbor" more than 10 years ago), that’s what former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said during a media dinner in D.C. last night. "We’re making as many problems as we are solving,” as vulnerabilities proliferate and hackers reverse-engineer patches released by vendors like Microsoft to enable access to the network. That leaves government vulnerable and to some degree unaware of the impending danger, until an attack serves as a wakeup call, he said, not unlike the infamous bombing during World War II. What should the government be doing? Nunn didn’t claim to know. He was just as elusive on another subject: a potential run for the White House in 2008, saying only that if it did happen, he’d run as an Independent candidate.