As a former IT/IS person the one thing I always told my clients is that if you want to make sure you are never hacked via the Internet don't connect to it. If someone wants to get into your system they will find a way. And systems can be hacked into directly....not via the Internet. The only way to mitigate it is to make sure all software and hardware vulnerabilities are kept patched and configured securely. Also, proper 24/7 monitoring is needed. Our government needs to have a robust, world-class IT/IS department fully funded, and work closely with software manufacturers to keep up-to-date on vulnerabilities, and out-of-date hardware and software need to be replaced. Also frequent testing of systems are needed. There is no excuse for our government computer systems to be as vulnerable as they are. Having outside white-hat hackers testing government system vulnerabilities gives me pause, as government employees fully-vetted would be better.