President Obama on Tuesday published a long-awaited directive clarifying how the federal government should respond to a cyber attack.
The directive issues a set of principles for guiding the federal response and lays out which government agencies would be responsible in the event of a “significant cyber incident,” which is broadly defined as an attack likely to result in demonstrable harm to national security interests, foreign relations, the US economy, public confidence, civil liberties or the public health or safety of the American people.
In the event of a significant cyber attack, the FBI and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force would take the lead in “threat response activities.” That refers to law enforcement and national security investigative work like collective evidence. The Department of Homeland Security will be in charge of “asset response activities,” which includes providing technical assistance to the affected entities to protect their assets and mitigate the impact of the attack. Lastly, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is the lead agency for intelligence support.
Original Source: ZDNet
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