White House revealing Obama’s cybersecurity plan
WASHINGTON — The White House is revealing details of President Barack Obama’s executive order taking initial steps to protect the computer networks of crucial American industries from cyberattacks.
The announcement is coming a day after the president signed the order and encouraged Congress in his State of the Union address to pass legislation taking even tougher steps.
On Tuesday, senior administration officials said Obama’s order starts the development of voluntary standards to protect the computer systems that run critical sectors of the economy like the banking, power and transportation industries. It also directs U.S. defense and intelligence agencies to share classified threat data with those companies.
Obama said lawmakers should write legislation that gives the government even more power to fend off attacks on U.S. interests.