Barack Obama to promote sharing of cyber security threat information

Washington: Amid increased cyber threats from overseas, US President Barack Obama is set to put in place measures aimed at encouraging and promoting sharing of cyber security threat information.

Obama will sign an executive order aimed at encouraging and promoting sharing of cyber security threat information within the private sector and between the private sector and government.

To be signed during the White House Cyber Security Summit at the Stanford University in California, the executive order would lay out a framework for expanded information sharing designed to help companies work together and work with the federal government to quickly identify and protect against cyber threats.

Though CEOs from Google, Yahoo and Facebook have declined to attend the summit, the Apple CEO Tim Cook will address the meeting during which he will announce his intent to fold the government's cyber security recommendations into its own cyber strategy.

Several other companies would be making their own announcements.

Intel is releasing a paper on its use of the Framework and requiring all of its vendors to use the Framework by contract, while Bank of America will announce that it is using the Framework and will also require it of its vendors.

The Cyber Threat Alliance (including Palo Alto Networks and Symantec, Intel Security, and Fortinet) will announce that its new cyber threat sharing partnership is starting to build best practices and standards consistent with the new information sharing Executive Order.

While the Entertainment Software Association would announce the creation of a new information sharing and analysis organisation that will be built consistent with the new information sharing Executive Order, Crowdstrike would announcing that it will form an information sharing and analysis organisation.

Box is announcing that it will participate in the standards-development process for ISAOs, and that it will explore ways to use the Box platform to enhance collaboration among ISAOs.

FireEye is launching its "Information Sharing Framework" which allows FireEye customers to receive threat intelligence in near-real-time and provides anonymised threat indicators.

Several organisations including Visa and Mastercard will announce new commitments to promote more secure payment technologies.