Elite DARPA cyber heroes will protect interwebs ... DARPA is upping its cyber game in order to protect the internet it came up with, increasing its research budget from $120m (£74.6m) to $188m (£117m) for the fiscal year 2012. "DARPA's role in the creation of the internet means we were party to the intense opportunities it created and share in the intense responsibility of protecting it. Our responsibility is to acknowledge and prepare to protect the Nation in this new environment," Regina E Dugan, DARPA director, said in a canned statement. "We need more and better options. We will not prevail by throwing bodies or buildings at the challenges of cyberspace. Our assessment argues that we are capability limited, both offensively and defensively. We need to fix that." – The Register

Dominant Social Theme: DARPA to the rescue of the Internet. Government on the march ... and aren't we grateful!

Free-Market Analysis: We can see from the above excerpted article that the Darth Vader of US Intel/technology agencies is on the march again. DARPA – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Collectively, it will now shove its big, black helmet in the path of Internet "hackers" and make the 'Net once again safe for the "American Way." 

This means expanded budgets if they have their "druthers!" Very important. It also means, no doubt, an overhaul of the Internet – what DARPA controls of it – and far more intrusive government surveillance (e.g., the Nano Hummingbird to "provide reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities in urban environments," left). All to fight the relatively non-existent threat to "Internet security."

According to government types, the Internet now is only frequented by a few miserable people on a regular basis. There are "pedophiles" on the troll for little girls and boys. There are Jihadists with big beards and exceptional technological skills. There are Julian Assange-type hackers who are young and redeemable. Finally, there are the ChiComs, busily plotting the unraveling of Western technology.

That's generally it! The rest of the denizens of the 'Net are neither important nor numerous. The threats abound, though! DARPA has decided to confront them. One positive side effect, from the point of view of DARPA-types: They get to perpetuate the meme that DARPA "invented" the Internet.