Our government doesn’t care about digital freedom, and they’re not doing much about cybersecurity. There is simply no other way to characterize their overall behavior.

I found it intriguing when a report came out yesterday that said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has asked for people traveling during Thanksgiving to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior.

We’d all like to thank Mr. Johnson for the warning. He was gracious enough to also share that the administration states that there is “no credible and specific intelligence indicating a Paris-like plot on the U.S. homeland.” These were very specific statements, but somehow I do not feel reassured that all is well.

“We continue to urge all Americans to exercise their freedom to travel, attend public events, celebrate the holidays, but be vigilant and aware, and report suspicious things and activity,” Johnson said. “’If You See Something, Say Something’ is more than a slogan.”

Well, I’m saying something. Many of us are. The enemy is coming.

Cyber-attacks on this country will soon prove to be the biggest emerging threat in the arsenals of our enemies and specifically the Islamic State.

The surveillance programs I have spoken so strongly against are not doing anything to protect us. Time and time again, these programs have failed us.

On July 16 of this year, in my home state of Tennessee, a lone gunman named Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez opened fire and killed five members of the military. Surveillance was of no help in this case as he allegedly acted alone. Lone wolf scenarios aside, we are left to guess if our surveillance state could do anything to prevent the kind of attacks that happened in France earlier this month.

Interestingly, France has its own controversial NSA-style surveillance program. Surely, somebody made a phone call, someone sent an email, somebody met somebody in person, yet there isn’t even one report of anything suspicious found on video, in Internet records, in phone calls, not a thing. This was clearly a coordinated attack, which called for a tremendous amount of collusion. Perhaps the country isn’t doing it well, but maybe these types of programs don’t work as advertised in detecting plots ahead of time.

The country is on edge, and this kind of warning was quite necessary in some ways, but it is utterly incomplete. Not a mention of cyber threats is found within it, even as millions of people are about to board planes and fly in the air … as millions of people rush out to shop in crowded malls and retail locations.

“Nor should we succumb to panic, fear and anxiety and compromise our values. Terrorism cannot prevail in a society that refuses to be terrorized,” Johnson added.

This is probably the only point that makes any sense in my opinion. I ask the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – what if our values include privacy? What if we value freedom? What if we value not running a program that violates both and has done little to nothing toward protecting us?

I also encourage vigilance. I encourage action. I encourage these things with respect to the rights of the individual.

Find out more about my campaign at www.mcafee16.com.

Photo credit: Sharon Mollerus