White House Announces Cybersecurity Initiatives

The Obama Administration on Tuesday announced a legislative proposal to strengthen cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and government and modernize law enforcement authorities to combat cyber crime. Among its points, the proposal encourages the private sector to share cyber threat information with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, according to a White House release. “With the Sony attacks that took place, with the [US Central Command] Twitter account that was hacked by Islamist jihadist sympathizers yesterday, it just goes to show how much more work we need to do, both public and private sector, to strengthen our cybersecurity to make sure that families’ bank accounts are safe, to make sure that our public infrastructure is safe,” said Obama in remarks in the White House Cabinet Room on Tuesday. He said he would be discussing cybersecurity in his State of the Union address on Jan. 20.