OPINION / Cyber-attacks demand public-private response

The federal government is increasingly taking a leadership role in improving the nation's cyber-security. But, with a threat that is quickly growing and more sophisticated each day, it's clear that the government -- for all of its good intentions -- cannot win this battle without a robust commitment from technology companies.

The stakes could not be higher: A recently declassified report from the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit research think tank, revealed that cyber-attacks emanating from inside Russia disabled most of the Georgian government's computer grid in August 2008, just days before war broke out between those two nations. In May, concerns arose again that defense industrial data was being exfiltrated to Asia. And in March, sensitive data on the presidential helicopter, Marine One, were found in a publicly available shared folder on a computer in Tehran, Iran.