President Obama on Friday will sign an executive order calling for greater cooperation between the federal government and private sector on cybersecurity, the White House said Thursday night.
Mr. Obama will sign the order while in Palo Alto, California, to attend the White House’s Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection. The event will be held at Stanford University, and the president will address the gathering Friday afternoon.
The executive order will encourage federal agencies and private companies to better share information on cybersecurity threats. It also takes steps to make it easier for the federal government to share classified information with private businesses on relevant cybersecurity threats.
The order is designed to encourage voluntary information-sharing between industry and government, both of which are the frequent targets of cyberhackers.
“Malicious actors ranging from sophisticated nation-states to common criminals to hacktivists take advantage of the anonymity, reach and broad range of effects that cyberspace offers,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the order. “Because of the interconnected nature of the Internet, no one is isolated from these threats.
“We are at an inflection point, both domestically and internationally, and now is the time to raise the call for greater collective action.”
At the summit, the administration also will announce that major American businesses — such as Bank of America, Walgreens, Kaiser Permanente and others — will commit to use the administration’s cybersecurity framework, a voluntary set of guidelines released last year.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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