President Obama on Tuesday outlined a new set of cybersecurity initiatives that he said would provide “every American a basic level of online security.”
“It is no secret that too often government IT is like an Atari game in an Xbox world,” Obama wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “The Social Security Administration uses systems and code from the 1960s. No successful business could operate this way.”
Obama used the piece to delineate several components of his Cybersecurity National Action Plan. Those pieces include $3 billion to overhaul federal computer systems, efforts to bolster the federal cybersecurity workforce, a public awareness campaign, and a new commission to discuss cybersecurity plans.
The president also took a moment to ponder his unique place in history.
“These cyberthreats are a national-security risk few of my predecessors faced, but they will be ones my successors, regardless of party, must address,” Obama wrote. “As long as I’m president, protecting America’s digital infrastructure is going to remain a top national-security priority.”
The cybersecurity plan, abbreviated as CNAP, was first laid out to reporters by White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel on Monday, and is part of an effort to engage in cybersecurity reform across the federal government. It also comes with a $19 billion price tag, a 35 percent increase over the previous year, which will be included in the president’s budget request to Congress.
In addition to the broader steps the president laid out, the plan will create a chief information security officer in the federal government, a position that Obama said “most major companies have already adopted.” The position will report to Tony Scott, the country’s chief information officer.
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“As fast as our connected world is evolving, it is worth remembering that we’re still in the early days of this challenge,” Obama said. “The first Web page came online in 1990. We’re only in the third decade of the Internet Age, and I believe we’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s possible — if we protect the innovation and privacy that we cherish as Americans.”
