New Cybersecurity Executive Order – AALL Legal Innovation & Technology SIS

With increased reliance on information storage in “the cloud” and the United States' aging communications infrastructure, cybersecurity issues are on the rise. On Tuesday, President Obama signed an executive order that is a first step toward addressing cybersecurity concerns. The focus of the executive order is information sharing regarding cyber threats between the federal government and private business and industry.

A second part of the executive order concerns a review of the existing regulatory framework to see whether the federal government has the ability to require standardized barriers to cyber threats. Last year, the Obama administration was unsuccessful in its attempt to pass cybersecurity legislation that would create enforceable minimum technological and security standards for critical infrastructure, so information sharing is very much a first step.