DARPA has reached out to hackers to help secure U.S. military networks from future cyber threats.

DARPA or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency which helped create the Internet more than 40 years ago is now looking for more offensive ways to fight against cyber threats. In its Cyber Colloquium that hosted academics, computer security professionals and hackers, DARPA Director Regina Dugan reinforced the need for more options in the future warfare which would include cyber terrorism.

"DARPA's role in the creation of the internet means we were party to the intense opportunities it created and share in the intense responsibility of protecting it. Our responsibility is to acknowledge and prepare to protect the Nation in this new environment," said Dugan. "We need more and better options. We will not prevail by throwing bodies or buildings at the challenges of cyberspace. Our assessment argues that we are capability limited, both offensively and defensively. We need to fix that."

Major cyber attacks have made the headlines in the last few weeks. A few examples of these high level cyber threats are an attack on an Iranian nuclear facility by the Stuxnet computer virus, another virus that infiltrated the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, and Operation Shady RAT, a massive series of cyber attacks that stretched over five years and gained access to multiple U.S. government agencies, the United Nations, foreign governments and technology companies.

To counter these threats DARPA has increased its cyber research funding from $120 million to $208 million. DARPA also plans to grow its cyber research from 8 percent to 12 percent. And DARPA will now allocate more funds to investigating offensive capabilities to address the situation.

DARPA has also recruited a cyber team composed of experts from different fields including the "white hat" hacker community. Some hackers like Peiter "Mudge" Zatko of the L0pht Collective already works at DARPA as a program manager for cybersecurity.

"This is not to suggest that we stop doing what we are doing in cyber security. On the contrary, our existing efforts are necessary," said Dugan. "These efforts represent the wisdom of the moment. But if we continue only down the current path, we will not converge with the threat."