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Obama to announce new cybersecurity legislative proposal

Xinhua, January 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce a new legislative proposal aimed at promoting better cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and government as well as combating cybercrime, the White House said.

The proposal, which Obama will detail in a speech Tuesday afternoon at the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington, Virginia, encouraged the private sector to share cyber threat information with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies, the White House said in a statement.

Companies that shared information with these entities will be provided with "targeted liability protection," said the proposal, which called for the formation of private-sector-led Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations.

Obama's proposal also contained provisions that would allow for the prosecution of the sale of botnets, and would give courts the authority to shut down botnets engaged in distributed denial of service attacks and other criminal activity.

A botnet is an army of compromised machines, also known as " zombies," which can be used to launch denial of service attacks on web servers under the command and control of a single "botmaster."

The provisions also "would criminalize the overseas sale of stolen U.S. financial information like credit card and bank account numbers and would expand federal law enforcement authority to deter the sale of spyware used to stalk or commit ID theft," the White House said.

The White House also planned to host a Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University on Feb. 13.

Obama first proposed cyber legislation in 2011 but the proposal failed to get congressional approval.

Tuesday's proposal would be part of a weeklong focus on privacy and cybersecurity by Obama ahead of his State of the Union address next week.

On Monday, he put forward a new legislative proposal requiring companies to notify consumers within 30 days after the theft of personal information is discovered. Endite