On Wednesday, President Obama announced an executive order that allows the Treasury Department to impose sanctions against cyber hackers who impose a significant threat to national security, states CNN.
“This Executive Order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to impose sanctions on individuals or entities that engage in malicious cyber-enabled activities that create a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States,” the President said In a statement announcing the order.
Last November, there was a cyber attack on Sony Pictures that the FBI pinned on North Korea.
At the time Obama questioned Sony’s decision to pull its movie “The Interview.”
According to The Christian Science Monitor, the new executive order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to sanction malicious cyber actors whose actions threaten the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States.
In January the White House imposed sanctions against officials within the North Korean government as part of what Obama called a “proportional response” to the Sony hacking.
OK, Fine. 