last month, mudge began working for darpa, the secretive research arm of the department of defense. however, the u.s. is playing catch-up. countries like china and russia have dedicated considerable resources to the cyber-battlefront, while the u.s. has been slow to react. >> so, establish it's a problem, declare it as a national priority, develop a plan, and then invest properly in this. >> reporter: the u.s. invented the internet. now it needs to find ways to make it safe. terry mccarthy, cbs news, ashburn, virginia. >> rodriquez: and you can go to the internet to find all the story in this series. cbsnews,.com. and please tell us where you stand on the issues we're covering. we'll have more news next, and later, an angst anti-occupation, but does it have a future in the 21st century? glog today, earth day furniture 40, and a new cbs news poll shows americans have big concerns about the future of our planet. nearly half expect the environment to be in worst shape for the next generation. only 16% think it will improve, while a third say it will stay the same. 190 countries held ea

this american hacker known as mudge knows firsthand how vulnerable these systems are.s ago, he bored in to regional telecom and utility networks. within a week, he'd worked out how to take most of them down. >> it was terrifying. it was absolutely terrifying. that was my epiphany was if i figured it out, other people figured it out, also. >> reporter: the government is quietly hiring hackers to learn their secrets. last month, mudge began working for the secretive research arm of the department of defense. however, the u.s. is playing catchup. countries like china and russia are dedicated considerable resources to the cyber battlefront while the u.s. has been slow to react. >> so establish the problem, declare it as a national priority, develop a plan, and then invest properly in this. >> reporter: the u.s. invented the internet. now it needs to find ways to make it safe. terry mccarthy, cbs news, ashburn, virginia. >>> a man went from minimum wage to a multimillionaire overnight. 29-year-old chris shaw won this week's power ball lottery jackpot worth a whopping $258 m