In wake of Anthem hack, Obama addresses cyber threats

Seeking to improve cybersecurity-related data-sharing in both the government and the private sector, President Obama has signed an executive order creating the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center.

The new entity will fall under the leadership of the director of national intelligence, serving as a counterpart in the electronic world to the National Counterterrorism Center that was established in 2004, presidential advisor Lisa Monaco said, according to the Department of Defense.

This news comes just a week after health insurer Anthem disclosed that it was the victim of a massive hack that may have compromised the data of as many as 80 million people. Reports suggested that the Anthem incident may have been a state-sponsored attack originating in China, raising questions about national security.

“To the private sector, we’ve made it clear that we will work together,” Monaco said in a Feb. 10 speech to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. “We’re not going to bottle up our intelligence. If we have information about a significant threat to a business, we’re going to do our utmost to share it.”

Likewise private entities need a single point of contact to report threats to the federal government. “We want this flow of information to go both ways,” Monaco said.

To this end, the executive order promotes the development of “information sharing and analysis organizations” (ISAOs). “An ISAO could be a not-for-profit community, a membership organization, or a single company facilitating sharing among its customers or partners,” a White House fact sheet explained.