President Barack Obama issued an executive order Wednesday allowing the Treasury Department to impose financial sanctions on Internet attackers who pose a threat to U.S. national security.
Saying that online and computerized threats “pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the United States,” the president announced sanctions such as freezing attackers’ financial assets.
“We’re giving notice to those who pose significant threats to our security or economy by damaging our critical infrastructure, disrupting or hijacking our computer networks, or stealing the trade secrets of American companies or the personal information of American citizens for profit,” Obama said in a written statement.
The new order declared a national emergency on online threats. It authorized the treasury secretary, working with the attorney general and the secretary of state, to penalize individuals or entities that “engage in significant malicious cyberenabled activities” that threaten the nation’s security or economy.
In a separate statement, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the order would allow the U.S. to “expose and financially isolate those who hide in the shadows of the Internet to conduct malicious cyber activities.”
The primary focus of the order is threats from overseas. Actions that harm critical infrastructure, economic resources, trade secrets or personal information would be targeted by the new order.
Under the order, the administration could freeze assets of attackers, block their property in the U.S. or stop their ability to transfer funds.
In addition, people who use or receive information stolen through online attacks – or those who assist such attackers – could receive sanctions.
The announcement came after the massive attack on Sony Pictures last November, during which attackers leaked internal documents such as employee payrolls, unreleased films and confidential correspondence.
In an official statement, the FBI said the North Korean government was responsible for the attack.
In his State of the Union address in January, Obama promised efforts to combat such terrorism.
“For years the government has not taken action to combat the threat from overseas hackers,” Nick Akerman, a lawyer specializing in cybercrime at Dorsey and Whitney, said in an email. “This executive order properly recognizes that cyberattacks directed at the U.S. companies and government entities (are) a threat to our national security.”
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