Dive Summary:

• Newly released documents have confirmed the existence of a secret National Security Agency (NSA) program that has been created to beef up the country's cybersecurity efforts.
• The project, titled Perfect Citizen, was first mentioned in a magazine article in 2010, but the new documents show that the program is valued at $91 million and features technology developed by Massachusetts defense contractor Raytheon.
• The NSA has maintained that Perfect Citizen is "purely a vulnerabilities assessment and capabilities development contract" that "does not involve the monitoring of communications or the placement of sensors on utility company systems;" the revealing documents show that the program was authorized to hire 28 software engineers, program managers, and laboratory personnel, including a pair of "penetration testers" who specialize in breaking into networks to expose their weaknesses in order to improve them.

From the article:

Further, the document says, "prevention of a loss due to a cyber or physical attack, or recovery of operational capability after such an event, is crucial to the continuity of the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, and the operation of [Signals Intelligence] systems."

While most might agree the program's national-security goal is laudable, the question of just how to go about protecting the power grid has been a controversial topic in Congress and among Internet privacy advocates leery of government control of the Internet. Of particular concern among such advocates is shielding privately owned corporate computer networks deemed to be "critical infrastructure" from potentially intrusive digital monitoring. ...