Obama aide: Cyber threat sharing would help sanctions effort

The Obama administration’s new effort to punish cyber criminals would get a boost from the enactment of threat-sharing legislation, a White House aide said Wednesday.

Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel did not endorse the information-sharing bills that are likely headed to final Senate and House votes in April.

{mosads}But, discussing a new cybersecurity sanctions regime, he said more information from the private sector would help the government track down bad actors online.

“To the extent that it increases the information flow between the government and the private sector, [enacting legislation] would certainly enable us to do a better job of amassing evidence, identifying targets and basically building the cases that we would need to use this tool,” Daniel said on a call with reporters.

A new threat-sharing law would “certainly work in concert” with sanctions, he said.

The White House has been largely mum about its opinion of the threat-sharing bills progressing through the House and Senate, known as CISA and PNCA. The administration initially expressed concerns about a CISA draft, which delayed its markup for several weeks.

Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said last week that the White House was “encouraged by our changes” to CISA, which included all or part of 12 privacy-related amendments.

The administration announced Wednesday that it will pursue sanctions against cyber criminals involved in significant, malicious attacks on the United States.