From the wikipedia article on USCYBERCOM: "In July 2011 Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn announced in a conference that “We have, within Cyber Command, a

From the wikipedia article on USCYBERCOM: "In July 2011 Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn announced in a conference that “We have, within Cyber Command, a full spectrum of capabilities, but the thrust of the strategy is defensive.” “The strategy rests on five pillars, he said: treat cyber as a domain; employ more active defenses; support the Department of Homeland Security in protecting critical infrastructure networks; practice collective defense with allies and international partners; and reduce the advantages attackers have on the Internet.”" Their directors have emphasized that while it will have extensive attack capabilities that it will also provide support to all departments to help strengthen system security across the board. Banks, hospitals, government departments not relating to the military, utilities (power/water), are all critical to the nation and we must use every asset we have to protect them. I'd argue that any analogy involving armed soldiers or deadly equipment is very different from defensive cyber warfare. Cyber Command should NEVER act offensively against a US company or citizens, no government organization should in my opinion unless a similar level of physical violence is threatened or preformed by those citizens. If I was in charge I would allow all US citizens to attack US government systems as long as they responsibly disclose the security vulnerabilities and do not distribute any stolen information (and as long as they don't cause a service interruption), without fear of prosecution.