­The Washington Post exposed details of the plan for the wide-scale expansion late on Sunday. An official confirmed that plans for an extremely significant expansion were underway, but remained ambiguous about the precise figure.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier this month that a ‘cyber Pearl Harbor’ would soon hit the US.

Whilst the Washington Post reported the official statistic to be 4,900, a US official told Reuters that the exact figures were “pre-decisional,” whilst still confirming that Cyber Command was planning an enormous increase in the number of security personnel, potentially putting it on the same level as major combatant commands.