President Barack Obama will use executive action to create a new federal agency that will counter cybersecurity threats by sharing intelligence information with other government agencies once a crisis occurs, a White House official said on Tuesday, reported The Washington Post.
Slated to be formally announced today at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., the new Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) will be an "intelligence center that will 'connect the dots' between various cyber threats to the nation so that relevant departments and agencies are aware of these threats in as close to real time as possible," a senior official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
With a budget of about $35 million, the cyber agency will staff about 50 people at first, according to the Post. It will be created through a presidential memorandum, which is essentially another name for an executive order.
The agency's formation comes shortly after a number of hacks involving Sony Pictures, Home Depot Inc., Anthem Inc., Target Corp. and the federal government itself.
Even the nation's top spies acknowledge that the Internet is the battlefield of the future. Recently revealed NSA documents warned that the "next major conflict will start in cyberspace," reported Spiegel.
Obama hinted at a need for the agency during his Jan. 20 State of the Union speech, in which he said the government should integrate intelligence to fight cyberthreats "just as we have done to combat terrorism."
The administration said the CTIIC will be modeled after the National Counterterrorism Center, which was created following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks after critics said intelligence agencies had failed to adequately communicate with each other to prevent the al-Qaida attacks.
"The cyberthreat is one of the greatest threats we face, and policymakers and operators will benefit from having a rapid source of intelligence," Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, told the Post. "It will help ensure that we have the same integrated, all-tools approach to the cyberthreat that we have developed to combat terrorism."
