Cyber is the defense community’s new buzzword. It’s one of the few growing areas of the nation’s defense budget at a time when most line items are shrinking. Since 2011, former defense secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta has been warning of a possible “cyber Pearl Harbor.” More recently, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said that cybersecurity is one thing that keeps him up at night.

So what’s all the fuss about? To break it all down, the Washington Examiner recently spoke with Peter W. Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar and co-author (with Allan Friedman) of the book Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know. The excerpts below suggest that to defend itself in cyberspace, the United States must demystify the threat so that civilians, corporations and the military can take common-sense steps to foil an attack.