New US cyber security plan aims at keeping China out of America's crucial networks
Washington, Feb 13 : US President Barack Obama has signed an executive order that aims to protect the computer networks of crucial American industries from cyber attacks.
According to administration officials familiar with the matter, Obama order calls for the development of voluntary standards to protect the computer systems that run critical sectors of the economy like the banking, power and transportation industries.
Under the new order, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has a year to finalize a package of voluntary standards and procedures that will help companies address their cyber security risks, Fox News reports.
The package must include flexible, performance-based and cost-effective steps that critical infrastructure companies can take to identify the risks to their networks and systems and ways they can manage those risks, the report said.
According to the report, Congress has been struggling for more than three years to reach a consensus on cybersecurity legislation.
The process has exposed how difficult and complex the issue is, turning the long-awaited executive order into a bureaucratic scramble aimed at showing countries like China and Iran that the U.S. takes seriously the protection of consumer secrets.
The report also said that the U.S. has been preparing a new intelligence estimate that details cyber espionage as a growing economic problem.
One official said last week that the estimate was expected to cite more directly a role by the Chinese government and favor aggressive action against the Chinese government, the report added.