Interesting clarifications...

One of the interesting things I run into is how computer security terminology is used at times. A standing practice at many of my previous jobs was to list things like network probes as 'attacks'... yes they sort of go hand in hand, but when looking for funding it was always better to word things as "the XYZ enterprise-class firewall repels millions of attacks per day." versus the more mundane "the DMZ firewall stops millions of probes per day."

Having become quite used to seeing this sort of terminology bandied about (and doing the Politics2Geek translation) it was refreshing to read an actual clarification at a high level meeting:

When asked by Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) how
serious the threat to the Department of Defense was, 
Alexander replied that its networks see “hundreds of 
thousands of probes a day,” though he qualified that 
quickly by adding “these are not attacks, they are 
attempts to… scan the network to see what kind of 
software we are using.”

Anyway it was one of those things that I am sure various people are saying "Oh crap, he did what? Well hopefully no one will remember when our budget comes up."