President Obama Announces New Cybersecurity Proposals

Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security Obama

On January 13, President Obama visited the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center to announce a variety of legislative and administrative proposals, many of which were updates to his 2011 Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal, designed to confront cybersecurity threats.  These updated proposals, he stated, would promote better cybersecurity information sharing between the government and the private sector and enhance collaboration and information sharing within the private sector.  To encourage and facilitate such sharing, private companies that share cyber threat information while conforming to privacy protection requirements would receive liability protection.  In addition, the President asked that law enforcement be given better tools and authority to fight cybercrime. These tools would include measures that criminalize the overseas sale of stolen financial information like credit card and bank account numbers, updates to the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act that would apply it to cybercrimes, and reforms to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to ensure that insignificant conduct does not fall within the scope of the statute, while making clear that it can be used to prosecute insiders who abuse their ability to access information by using it for their own purposes.  In addition, the President announced a White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection, to be held at Stanford University on February 13, 2015.