The phenomenon of a recent widespread cyberattack, using weapons developed by the U.S. National Security Agency to disrupt major computer operations all over the globe, is not surprising, but it does call for urgent action on the federal governments part.

Weapons proliferation grew much more lethal when the United States developed the atomic bomb, intended to end World War II more rapidly. The technology then got handed to the Soviet Union. Nuclear weapons eventually ended up in the hands of China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States.

More recently, Americas and others cyberweapons creatively have been used to mess up Irans nuclear enrichment program, using the computer worm known as Stuxnet. It also appears that U.S. cyberaction has been used to gum up North Koreas rocket launches.

The problem now is that some of the clever procedures that NSA developed have leaked out, or have been developed independently by people in basements and elsewhere in Kiev, Moscow and Pyongyang, and are being used as they were last week from Ukraine to sabotage important systems, as well as to try to shake down computer system users across the world.

The NSA witness contractor-defector Edward J. Snowden is showing itself to be leaky. Its having difficulty protecting what it knows and preventing unintended use of the skills it develops.

The NSA must button up its files and techniques much more tightly. And whatever cyberweapons we have, we must also stay ahead in that game in our capacity to protect our own cyber infrastructure.

The penalty for falling behind in that development is chaos and danger in our society and country, incredibly high stakes given our vulnerability.

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Another View: NSA needs to secure its files and techniques more tightly - Press Herald