A February 12, 2013 Executive Order from President Obama entitled “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” was noted in his State of the Union with these comments:…will strengthen out cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now, Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.

This comes just before news reports claiming that China’s army is behind some of the world’s most prolific computer hackers. A U.S.-based cybersecurity firm claims to have tracked hacking activity to an area near Shanghai, and specifically to a building used by a secret division of the Chinese military. China has denied the allegations of hacking. Regardless, American’s competitors have clear incentives to seek economic and military advantage through hacking, and America’s ability to proper defend its cyber infrastructure is becoming an even bigger issue.

What is clear is that cybersecurity is critical to all governments and business given the world’s dependence on the Internet. Despite the White House’s 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review, which included a thorough analysis concluding that the world’s economy is dependent on the Internet, Congress has not yet created tougher cybersecurity laws. It is likely that this issue will only be pushed even more to the forefront of political discussion in the coming year as more and more reports of cybersecurity threats pour into the news.

Sources: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/executive-order-improving-critical-infrastructure-cybersecurity http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Cyberspace_Policy_Review_final.pdf http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/19/how-big-is-chinas-cyber-threat/?iref=allsearch

For more information, please visit our cyberlaw service page.

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