All Things Considered continues its conversations today about foreign policy challenges facing the U.S. with a look at the “cyberwar” threat.

As NPR’s Tom Gjelten explained to ATC guest host Audie Cornish, cyberwar moved way up many people’s lists of important foreign policy issues this year when the director of National Intelligence for the first time “identified the danger of cyber attacks on the United States as the single, the number one greatest security threat facing the country.”

There was a U.S. Cyber Command created to address that threat. What’s atop its agenda in 2011, Audie asked?

“Trying to figure out a way for the government and private sector to work together better,” Tom said, so that “those those responsible for defending our networks and those responsible for coming up with new cyber weapons” are cooperating.

The Stuxnet cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program, Tom pointed out, underscored the importance of protecting against cyberattacks.

Here’s some of the discussion he had with Audie:

Much more from Audie’s conversation with Tom will be on today’s ATC. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show. Copyright 2010 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.