Cybersecurity In The Obama Era
Our roundup of the Obama administration’s major initiatives, executive orders and actions over the past seven and a half years. How would you grade the president's cybersecurity achievements?
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On February 9, President Barack Obama announced the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), which he described as the capstone of more than seven years of determined effort by his administration. The plan builds upon lessons learned from cybersecurity trends, threats, and intrusions.
The plan also directs the federal government to take new action and pave the conditions required for long-term improvements in the approach to cybersecurity across the government, the private sector, and people’s personal lives.
Throughout the seven and a half years Obama has been in office, the president has launched numerous initiatives and executive orders to put in place a structure to fortify the government's defenses against cyber-attacks and protect the personal information the government keeps about its citizens.
Tom Kellermann, who was a member of The Center for Strategic & International Studies Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, gives the Obama administration a C+ for its cybersecurity efforts. The Commission was formed to advise the 44th president on the creation and maintenance of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.
“You can’t give him anything better than a C+,” says Kellermann. “Have things gotten worse? Yes. Do you feel comfortable calling the U.S. government if you need help in cyber as an individual or corporation? No.” The FBI will come investigate, Kellermann says, but investigate what? What happened last night? “Can they stop what is happening to you now from happening in the future? No.”
If the police are called to investigate a physical crime, not only will they investigate the crime but may institute a way for preventing that crime from happening to you again, he notes. “That doesn’t happen in cyber.”
In this slideshow we offer a roundup of some of the Obama administration’s major initiatives, executive orders and achievements in cybersecurity.
How would you grade the president's cybersecurity achievements?
Rapid information sharing is an essential element of effective cybersecurity, because it enables U.S. companies to work together to respond to threats, rather than operating alone. To move that process forward, President Obama signed an Executive Order to encourage and promote sharing of cybersecurity threat information within the private sector and between the private sector and government on February 12, 2015.
The EO laid out a framework for expanded information sharing designed to help companies work together, and work with the federal government, to quickly identify and protect against cyber threats.
It encourages the development of information sharing and analysis organizations (ISAOs) to serve as focal points for cybersecurity information sharing and collaboration within the private sector and between the private sector and government. Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) are already essential drivers of effective cybersecurity collaboration, and could constitute ISAOs under this new framework, the EO stated. In encouraging the creation of ISAOs, the Executive Order expands information sharing by encouraging the formation of communities that share information across a region or in response to a specific emerging cyber threat. An ISAO could be a not-for-profit community, a membership organization, or a single company facilitating sharing among its customers or partners.
On February 9, President Barack Obama announced the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), which he described as the capstone of more than seven years of determined effort by his administration. The plan builds upon lessons learned from cybersecurity trends, threats, and intrusions.
The plan also directs the federal government to take new action and pave the conditions required for long-term improvements in the approach to cybersecurity across the government, the private sector, and people’s personal lives.
Throughout the seven and a half years Obama has been in office, the president has launched numerous initiatives and executive orders to put in place a structure to fortify the government's defenses against cyber-attacks and protect the personal information the government keeps about its citizens.
Tom Kellermann, who was a member of The Center for Strategic & International Studies Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, gives the Obama administration a C+ for its cybersecurity efforts. The Commission was formed to advise the 44th president on the creation and maintenance of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.
“You can’t give him anything better than a C+,” says Kellermann. “Have things gotten worse? Yes. Do you feel comfortable calling the U.S. government if you need help in cyber as an individual or corporation? No.” The FBI will come investigate, Kellermann says, but investigate what? What happened last night? “Can they stop what is happening to you now from happening in the future? No.”
If the police are called to investigate a physical crime, not only will they investigate the crime but may institute a way for preventing that crime from happening to you again, he notes. “That doesn’t happen in cyber.”
In this slideshow we offer a roundup of some of the Obama administration’s major initiatives, executive orders and achievements in cybersecurity.
How would you grade the president's cybersecurity achievements?
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