President Obama on Wednesday said he will establish a cyberthreat intelligence integration center aimed at coordinating ongoing federal efforts to counter hackers and other cyberthreats aimed at the U.S. government and private industry.
The center, Mr. Obama said, will be focused on “connecting the dots” related to foreign cyberthreats and will fall under the purview of Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper.
It will not replace existing cyberthreat efforts carried out by U.S. Cyber Command and other government entities. Instead, it will “provide these entities, as well as other departments and agencies, with intelligence needed to carry out their cybersecurity missions,” the White House said.
In a memorandum to agency heads, Mr. Obama said the center will be responsible for coordinating intelligence-sharing among other arms of the federal government.
The center will be housed somewhere in Washington in an existing intelligence community facility, officials said. The administration projects it will have about 50 employees drawn from other departments and agencies across the government.
On the heels of high-profile cyberattacks against Sony Pictures and other companies, Mr. Obama has called for increase federal efforts to fight hackers.
“As with our counterterrorism efforts, the United States Government is taking a ’whole-of-government’ approach to defend against and respond to these threats,” the White House said in a fact sheet explaining the center. “In creating the [center], the administration is applying some of the hard-won lessons from our counterterrorism efforts to augment that ’whole-of-government’ approach by providing policymakers with a cross-agency view of foreign cyber threats, their severity, and potential attribution.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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