Daily Living

The DTT findings revealed a growing awareness of the role the internet plays in so many different aspects of our lives from security to commerce and from transportation to communication.

We are seeing this change from protecting the internet to a conversation about how we succeed and prosper in cyberspace," Mr Pellegrino told the BBC.

"Security spending is growing at a rate never seen before while the threat environment is growing at a pace of 40% a year.

"In terms of volume and severity of incidents, the math doesn't work and we have to come up with a different approach that requires public and private sectors working together," Mr Pellegrino said.

"We are talking about daily living," said fellow author Gary McAlum, who is a retired US Air Force colonel and senior manager of security and privacy services at Deloitte.

"There is a lot of discussion about the economy and the military and the public and private sector, but we have now reached a sense of urgency about the interconnectedness of all these areas."

That view was echoed by a member of the US military top brass who just gave evidence to a branch of the House Armed Services Committee.

"Our economy, the nation's critical infrastructure, and many of our military operations depend on unfettered access to cyberspace," said Lt Gen Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) who also heads the Pentagon's new Cyber Command.

"Maintaining freedom of action in cyberspace in the 21st Century is as inherent to US interests as freedom of the seas was in the 19th Century, and access to air and space in the 20th Century."

He has called for the creation of a digital warfare force for the future and has stated that the US needs to reorganise its offensive and defensive cyber-operations.