The U.S. government is still struggling with key cyber security issues more than a year after President Obama deemed the protection of computer systems a national priority. In 2009 the administration revealed a cyber space policy review, while the president appointed White House cyber coordinator Howard Schmidt to bring the government's initiatives into sync—but the administration is still debating whether it requires new legal authorities or whether such actions are permitted by existing statutes.

Critics also charge that officials have failed to allay privacy fears or determine the extent to which the government should regulate or cooperate with the private sector to ensure that critical industries are shielded against hackers. Meanwhile, Congress has drafted numerous cyber security bills, but the White House has yet to assume a stance on any of them. "You've got a lot of agreement on what the problem is but very little agreement on the solution, both within the government and outside," notes James A. Lewis with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III recently warned that more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are attempting to penetrate the U.S. military's digital networks, and said the threat to the intellectual property of the government, universities, and businesses may represent "the most significant cyber threat" facing the nation. Schmidt stresses the importance of private-public collaboration to secure the country's computer networks, and says that progress has been made. Still, experts say bureaucratic challenges and other factors are hindering DHS' cyber security efforts, including the implementation of the Einstein 3 program designed to spot and block malware before it enters government networks.

The program is currently stuck in pilot mode, partly because of DHS' uncertainty whether to use technology from NSA or the private sector. Defense officials are convinced that NSA has an advantage over industry through its ability under law to infiltrate enemies' overseas systems to acquire never-used malicious code, and then try to guarantee those codes are cut off from military networks. DoD's U.S. Cyber Command leverages NSA's proficiencies, but even that entity must cope with issues about privacy, the liability of private industry, and legal authorities.