Executive Order on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity

Yesterday, President Obama signed an Executive Order on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.

From the Executive Order: "Repeated cyber intrusions into critical infrastructure demonstrate the need for improved cybersecurity. The cyber threat to critical infrastructure continues to grow and represents one of the most serious national security challenges we must confront. The national and economic security of the United States depends on the reliable functioning of the Nation's critical infrastructure in the face of such threats. It is the policy of the United States to enhance the security and resilience of the Nation's critical infrastructure and to maintain a cyber environment that encourages efficiency, innovation, and economic prosperity while promoting safety, security, business confidentiality, privacy, and civil liberties."

The Executive Order seeks to strengthen "the U.S. Government's partnership with critical infrastructure owners and operators to address cyber threats" by:

• Establishing new information sharing programs to provide classified and unclassified threat information to U.S. companies
• Developing a Cybersecurity Framework, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Maintaining strong privacy and civil liberties protections
• Identifying critical infrastructure at greatest risk
• Reviewing and improving existing cybersecurity regulation
• Creating a voluntary critical infrastructure cybersecurity program to support the adoption of the Cybersecurity Framework

To read the White House press release concerning this Executive Order, click here.

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