Everybody knew that something had to be done to ensure that the kind of cyberattack that crippled Sony Pictures Entertainment for over a month didn’t happen again. A country like the U.S. and businesses that are based in it are likely to be under the threat of a cyberattack from rival companies and unfriendly governments. The Sony hack is believed to be North Korea’s doing. To safeguard against future threats the Obama administration is going to set up a new government agency which will be tasked with combating cyberattack threats.
According to The Washington Post this new government agency is modeled after the National Counterterrorism Center which was launched after the September 11th, 2001 attacks, following criticism of the government on its inability to share intelligence which could have thwarted the plot.
Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center is the name of this new agency. It will cost the taxpayers $35 million annually and will be run by a team of 50 people.
As per the report CTIIC will not conduct any surveillance itself rather it will work with both public and private partners to weed out any potential cyberattacks against government or business infrastructure.
CTIIC will basically function like a centralized agency which will be able to pull in data from the FBI, NSA and CIA, thus improving intelligence sharing between those agencies, particularly on potential cyberattacks.
Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, will announce the formation of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center during a speech at the Wilson Center later today.
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