In October 2012 I gave a talk at ISSA Sacramento titled "Cyber Security in a World with Professional Attackers". The topic of the talk was the growing professionalization of the cyber conflict. The 4th slide (shown above) summed up the talk. Remember when Kevin Mitnick was considered the most dangerous threat on the Internet? Those days seem so quaint now.
The existence of Cyber Command captures how professional the cyber conflict has become. Since I gave this talk, Mandiant released their report on a professional Chinese outfit nicknamed APT1, and of course there has been all the Snowden leaks showing in even greater detail the scale and sophistication of activities on the Internet.
The Internet in the days of Kevin Mitnick as "the world's most wanted hacker" seems like The Andy Griffith Show's Mayberry now.