Sometimes, though, the hacks hit harder than usual. That was the case in St. Paul, Minnesota, which suffered a significant cyberattack last Friday that it has been unable to mitigate. Things have gotten so bad that the city has declared a state of emergency, while the governor activated the National Guard to assist.

Minnesota has called in the National Guard after the city of St. Paul was slammed by what its mayor described as a "deliberate, coordinated, digital attack" carried out by sophisticated hackers.

Minnesota has the right people, deep technical knowledge and years of leadership in securing critical infrastructure. Now it needs execution.