♦ The threat of a cyberattack is approaching the seriousness of nuclear weapons [1], the former Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told a Senate committee yesterday. "If the nation went to war today in a cyberwar, we would lose," he said. "We're the most vulnerable, we're the most connected, and we have the most to lose." The most critical thing to do now, McConnell said, is to secure financial transactions and the financial sector, reports Information Week.

♦ Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) say they are "astounded" to learn that contractors outnumber government employees at the Department of Homeland Security [2] (DHS), reports CNN.com. They called the situation "unacceptable, untenable and unsustainable," in a letter to homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano.

♦ The Baltimore Sun's Thomas F. Schaller says a double standard permeates the national debate over what constitutes terrorism [3]. Schaller argues that if the alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is a terrorist then so is Joseph Stack, the man who flew a small airplane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas.

♦ Kings County will hire a new private security company to guard Seattle's downtown transit tunnel [4] sometime in the future, reports The Seattle Times. The decision comes nearly a month after a 15-year-old girl was attacked and stomped by another 15-year-old girl as three security guards from Olympic Security Services stood by and watched. The county's transit manager said replacing Olympic is the only way to restore customers' confidence.

♦ President Barack Obama's home airport will receive its first full body scanner next week [5], according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport along with Boston's Logan Airport will receive the scanners as an additional security layer after the botched terrorism attack of Dec. 25. The scanners will be paid for by President Obama's 2009 stimulus plan.