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Obama will throw his support behind efforts to
give liability protection to companies that quickly share
information about attacks, but will require strict protections
for personal information, the White House said in a statement.
The White House first proposed cyber legislation in 2011. In the
last Congress, the Republican-controlled House of
Representatives passed a bill, but the Senate failed to clear
legislation.
Lawmakers have struggled to balance corporate concerns about
liability with consumer fears about privacy, especially
following the leak of information about government surveillance
programs by former contractor Edward Snowden.
The government itself has not been immune from cyber problems.
On Monday, social media accounts for the U.S. military command
that oversees operations in the Middle East were hacked by
people claiming to be allied with Islamic State militants.
Obama will meet with congressional leaders at the White House on
Tuesday, and is expected to discuss his cybersecurity proposals.
In a speech at the Department of Homeland Security's
cybersecurity nerve center slated for 3.10 p.m. ET, Obama also
will propose new powers for law enforcement to investigate and
prosecute cybercrime, the White House said.
His proposal includes measures to allow for the prosecution of
the sale of botnets, and would give courts the power to shut
down botnets responsible for distributed denial of service
attacks.
Botnets are typically used to steal financial information, to
relay spam messages and to conduct "denial-of-service" attacks
against websites by having all the computers try to connect
simultaneously.
Other measures would be aimed at deterring the sale of spyware
and would make selling stolen credit card information overseas a
crime, the White House said.
Obama also will announce details of a cybersecurity summit
slated for Feb. 13, an event that will take place not at the
White House, but in Silicon Valley, at Stanford University.
Obama's legislative proposals are part of a preview of his Jan.
20 State of the Union address.
On Monday, he announced he wants to work with Congress on a law
that would require companies to tell consumers within 30 days
from the discovery of a data breach that their personal
information has been compromised.
He also wants to codify a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights" that
gives consumers more say in how companies use their data.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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