You had set a strong root password, correct? So in what sense had you not already "done something" that successfully defended against "this stuff" ?

You could ask Rackspace to implement a feature where newly setup servers have most incoming traffic dropped until the customer finishes setting up. You're also free to -j DROP all packets from outside the US if you think that would help.

But your wording makes it sound like you think there exists some collective action the government could take to prevent you even being scanned by "others". If you believe this is the case, the burden is on you by far to propose a specific concrete solution and thoroughly convince others that it is necessary.

I, for one, don't see how it's possible for an ambient authority to "secure" a network based on peer to peer communication without destroying it in the process.