White House Creates Cybersecurity Agency to Combat Threats

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will establish a new agency tasked with protecting the U.S. from cyberattacks. The Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center will gather intelligence from both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency to help prevent hackers from stealing information. This announcement comes on the heels of a major security breach last week, when hackers broke into the system of health insurance company Anthem.

The Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) will be a new division under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

This office already aggregates intelligence from different agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the CIA, the NSA, the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, and the Pentagon. However, the White House believes the current approach is not working to prevent major attacks.

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“The threat is becoming more diverse, more sophisticated and more dangerous, and I worry that malicious attacks… will increasingly become the norm unless we adapt quickly and take a comprehensive approach,” said Lisa Monaco, the White House’s top aide for counterterrorism and homeland security.

Many companies believe the government is not doing enough to warn them about attacks from Russia, North Korea, and China, according to The Wall Street Journal.

While some applaud the creation of the new division, other computer experts worry that this could cause more privacy concerns. Tech companies want to bolster their collective defenses against hackers, but at the same time, they are a little of wary of the monitoring turning into another case of NSA surveillance.

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