White House Announces “Cybersecurity National Action Plan”

The Obama Administration has released a Cybersecurity National Action Plan (“CNAP”) that will provide the nation with a long-term strategy to “enhance cybersecurity awareness and protections, protect privacy, maintain public safety as well as economic and national security, and empower Americans to take better control of their digital security,” according to a White House press release. This long-term strategy will be a product of a “series of near-term actions” intended to enhance the cybersecurity of agencies within the federal government as well as private parties across the country, the press release explained. The CNAP’s emphasis on public-private cooperation is consistent with the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 passed by Congress in December 2015.

Specifically, the press release highlighted the following actions included in CNAP:

• Establish the “Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity”: This Commission will include members from the public as well as the private sector, and will provide recommendations to both the private and public sectors for strengthening cybersecurity over the next decade.
• Modernize government IT and the management of cybersecurity: To achieve this, the Administration is proposing a $3.1 billion Information Technology Modernization Fund. The Fund will be used to retire, replace, and modernize difficult to secure and expensive legacy IT. The Fund will also finance a new position to “drive these changes” which will be called the Federal Chief Information Security Officer.
• Add an “extra layer” of security: The Administration wants to move “beyond just passwords.” To this end, it plans to “judiciously” combine passwords with additional security factors, such as the use of fingerprints or a “single use code delivered in a text message.” This multi-factor authentication is designed to “[e]mpower Americans to secure their online accounts.”
• Invest over $19 billion on cybersecurity: The Administration will invest over $19 billion for cybersecurity as part of the President’s FY 2017 Budget, a 35% increase from FY 2016.

The White House Fact Sheet can be found here.