President Obama Signs Cybersecurity Executive Order

Last night, President Obama recently signed a long-anticipated Executive Order, " Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity," which directs the federal government to share cyberthreat information with the owners of systems that are critical to the country's infrastructure. The order also requires government to work with businesses to develop baseline cybersecurity best practices that private industry may voluntarily adopt.

While the Executive Order is not geared toward general commercial enterprises, private industry will be affected. Within 150 days of the release of the Executive Order, the Homeland Security Secretary shall use a risk-based approach to identify critical infrastructure—even infrastructure owned by private industry—where a cybersecurity disruption could reasonably result in "catastrophic regional or national effects on public health or safety, economic security or national security."