Attention to cybersecurity has gone from one extreme to the other. Soon after 9/11, the news media was filled with shrieking and arm-waving about "cyberterrorism." Eventually, sensible people ralized that the notion of cyberterrorism is just plain silly. Terrorists are interested in being terrifying, they want to set off bombs and send bodies flying and blood flowing.

Computer attacks aren't terrifying. They're merely annoying and expensive.

So now here we are, three years later. Three years is a long time. Children born in 2001 are now walking and talking. Fears about terrorism are fading. And now, the U.S. government is going to the other extreme—failing to pay enough attention to cybersecurity.

Congress last week passed a streamlined version of the Intelligence Reform Act that cut a provision that would have create a high-profile assistant secretary of cybersecurity within the Department of Homeland Security. The department has been without a permanent cybersecurity director since October, when Amit Yoran resigned. Sources close to Yoran said he was growing increasingly frustrated with the position's lack of authority and budget.

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