PRESIDENT Barack Obama has declared a “national emergency” against cyberattacks. The President signed an executive order on Wednesday, April 1 to authorize sanctions against criminals who engage in “significant malicious” cyberattacks against the U.S.
“Cyber threats pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the US,” said Obama in a statement addressing his executive order. “And my administration is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to confront them.”
By declaring certain malicious cyber activity a national emergency, Obama creates a sanctions “shortcut” through his order, which could speed up the Treasury Department’s ability to freeze assets and impose other sanctions when such malicious cyberattacks are “deemed to pose a significant threat to national security, foreign policy, or economy or financial stability of the US,” a fact sheet released by the White House stated.
The White House also cited cyberattack examples that compromise critical infrastructure, cause significant disruptions to computer networks, or steal “large quantities of credit card information or trade secrets.”
The new measures were announced after recent major cyber assaults on health insurance companies like Anthem and Premera Blue Cross, as well as giant entertainment studio Sony Pictures. The rules would apply to overseas actors engaging in a wide swath of cyber-criminal activity: from hacks stealing trade secrets or other financial information, to widespread distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks—along with anyone attempting to assist or provide material support for such offenses.
The US would be able to freeze assets and prevent any transactions with US financial systems. The State Department will also deny visas to those engaging in such criminal activities.
“[The order is] designed to fill in a gap that we have identified,” said White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel.
Some experts say the new program could be “staggering” for countries like China, where the cyber-hacks on the health insurance company Anthem are believed to have originated.
For foreign actors suspected of cyber-hacking US companies, “this is practically an economic death sentence,” Stewart Baker, a security expert and former assistant secretary of policy at the Department of Homeland Security.
“In the end, almost any economic transactions goes through New York, and the banks in New York won’t handle transactions with people who have sanctions imposed on them,” Baker said. “The potential ripple effect will be enormous.”
“People still have to be prosecuted, sentenced,” he continued. “This just creates a framework in which individuals can be identified…And the government is a lot better at attribution than they used to be.”
Michael Daniel also said the Sony Pictures hack last November—which the US reportedly traced back to North Korea—“informed” the administration’s development of the Obama’s executive order, and “highlighted the need to have this capability.”
“We know that in many cases in any country…there are companies that hire hackers to steal intellectual property and we don’t want to only deter those with their finders on the keyboard,” added Daniel. “We wanted to deter those paying [for those activities].”
The US also imposed new sanctions on North Korea following the uproar over Sony’s cyberattack; strict rules blocking the transfer, sale, or purchase of any property in the US by any person or agency affiliated with the North Korean government or the Workers’ Party of Korea. The ban also applies to anyone found to have “materially assisted” the North Korean government, and suspend entry of anyone trying to meet any of the criteria.
However, the White House says this new executive order on security augments the federal government’s power to deal with malicious cyber actors.
Earlier this year, President Obama signed an order to promote information sharing between affected parties in the private sector and government agencies. In February, he also held a cybersecurity summit in the nation’s tech capital of Silicon Valley, to recruit tech giants for the White House’s ongoing battle against the issue.
(With reports from CBS News)
