President Obama signed an executive order designed to implement a framework of cybersecurity practices protecting American companies, with a particular focus on financial institutions.
The executive order calls on federal agencies to ‘produce unclassified reports of threats to U.S. companies and requires the reports to be shared in a timely manner.’ It also directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to collaborate with the private sector on the development of a framework to reduce cybersecurity risks.
The executive order also calls on ‘independent regulatory agencies’ to leverage the new cybersecurity framework in order to ‘mitigate cyber risks for critical infrastructure consistent with their authorities.’
The White House also repeated its earlier calls for congressional legislation to address the cybersecurity issue.
‘The administration continues to believe that legislation is needed to fully address this threat,’ the executive order stated. ‘Existing laws do not permit the government to do all that is necessary to better protect our country.’