Identity Theft News

Obama addresses cybersecurity awareness in YouTube video

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Online cyber attacks and identity theft have never been higher, a threat environment that challenges U.S. security every day. President Obama has designated October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which he addressed in a web video last week.

"Millions of Americans have been victimized, their privacy violated, their money and identities stolen, their lives turned upside down," Obama said in the YouTube video, in which he sits in a chair at the White House facing the camera. "The lesson is clear, this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation."

To protect America's vital internet and wireless communications infrastructure, most of which is owned by private companies, the Obama administration is reaching out to private industry to create public-private partnerships for security cooperation and awareness.

Obama said he would appoint a top cybersecurity coordinator "soon," in the October 14 video from the White House YouTube channel. No one has stepped up to the job and several have turned offers down, but cybersecurity efforts have been ongoing at the Department of Homeland Security.

One thrust of the cybersecurity initiative is public education, which might explain why the president spoke to the matter himself - but the YouTube video so far has only been seen about 7,300 times.ADNFCR-1765-ID-19419553-ADNFCR

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