(The Hill) - President Obama declared Wednesday that the rising number of cyberattacks against the United States is a national emergency, and issued an executive order that would sanction those behind the attacks.
“Targeted sanctions, used judiciously, will give us a new and powerful way to go after the worst of the worst,” he said in a post on Medium.
Obama acted after a series of serious attacks breached public and private-sector defenses.
Two health insurers, Anthem and Premera Blue Cross, were recently breached in what’s thought to be an ongoing Chinese cyber espionage campaign.
Last November, Sony Pictures Entertainment was crippled by a massive digital assault over the film studio’s comedy “The Interview.”
Last November, Sony Pictures Entertainment was crippled by a massive digital assault over the film studio’s comedy “The Interview.”
The order will give the Treasury Department authority to impose sanctions on individuals or entities behind cyberattacks and cyber espionage.
“These threats can emanate from a range of sources and target our critical infrastructure, our companies, and our citizens,” Obama said in a statement. “This executive order offers a targeted tool for countering the most significant cyber threats that we face.”
Foreign governments have been suspected in many recent high-profile hacks across the public and private sector.
The FBI accused North Korea of organizing the attack in retaliation for “The Interview,” which depicts the assassination of Kim Jong Un.
In response, the White House imposed a new round of economic sanctions on North Korea, mostly targeting weapons companies selling to the reclusive East Asian nation.
Wednesday’s executive order would give Treasury more authority to impose similar sanctions in response to future cyberattacks.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the executive order will allow his department to “financially isolate those who hide in the shadows of the Internet.”
“This authority is a powerful new tool to help protect our security and economy against those who would exploit the free, open, and global nature of the Internet to cause harm,” Lew continued.
The White House said the order applies to several types of cyber crimes that have ravaged the U.S. over the last two years.
“Our primary focus will be on cyber threats from overseas,” Obama said on Medium.
Treasury will have the authority to impose sanctions against those who pilfer large troves of credit card data or sensitive information, for example.
Major hacks at retailers like Home Depot and Target exposed over 100 million Americans’ credit card data in the last 18 months.
A data breach at JPMorgan Chase last fall compromised 76 million households’ personal information.
The administration also clarified that the order will cover cyberattacks that “significantly disrupt” the availability of a computer network.
That includes distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), the calling card of hacktivist groups like Anonymous and many foreign countries like Iran and China.
Just in the last two weeks, Internet free speech activists have accused China of waging a major DDoS campaign against the popular U.S. coding site GitHub.
Whether Treasury will use its new authority to respond these type of attacks remains to be seen.
“We intend to use this authority carefully and judiciously against the most serious cyber threats to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Lew said.
Wednesday’s move is the next phase of the White House’s 2015 cybersecurity agenda.
The administration in January unveiled a series of legislative proposals meant to enhance public-private cybersecurity information sharing. Obama traveled to Silicon Valley in February to promote his platform at an all-day cyber summit. During the event, he signed an executive order to encourage Congress to take up his proposals.
In his Medium post, Obama vowed that this new tool will not lie dormant.
“We will use it,” he said.
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/237581-obama-declares-cyberattacks-a-national-emergency
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