Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today that the United States executive branch of government faces “hundreds of thousands of [cyber] attacks every day” and revealed his fear that the nation has “not taken all the necessary steps” to avert a cyber attack disaster.

“I’ve got a hell of a lot to keep me awake at night,” Panetta told a Kentucky audience today. “I have to tell you that I do worry, however, about this new area I talked about of cyber-war.  We are literally getting hundreds of thousands of attacks every day that try to exploit information in various agencies and departments and frankly throughout this country.”