President Barack Obama is taking aim at “malicious cyber actors” who attempt to profit from digital attacks on US interests.

An executive order announced Wednesday authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State and Attorney General to impose sanctions on cyberattackers hacking into the networks of US companies or government agencies.

“Effective incident response requires the ability to increase the costs and reduce the economic benefits from malicious cyber activity,” Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, wrote in a statement. “And this means, in addition to our existing tools, we need a capability to deter and impose costs on those responsible for significant harmful cyber activity where it really hurts — at their bottom line.”

Read the Full Article: Source – c|net
http://www.cnet.com/news/obama-issues-executive-order-to-sanction-malicious-cyber-actors/

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