The U.S. government is launched program dubbed “Perfect Citizen” to detect cyber assault on private companies and government agencies.

The agency awarded defense contractor Raytheon a classified contract worth up to $100 million for the initial phase of the project. There are fears that this new surveillance program is seen as an intrusion by the agency. Others believe that is something needed in a time where cyber threats is a real possibility.

Perfect Citizen will look at large, typically older computer control system that were often designed without Internet connectivity or security mind.

Many of those systems which run everything from subway systems to air- traffic control networks, have since been linked to the internet, making them more efficient but also exposing them to cyber attack.

The “Perfect Citizen” program isn’t entirely new. It grew out of a project named “April Strawberry” that the NSA launched some yeara ago to address the problem of critical infrastructure vulnerability.

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