[JURIST] US President Barack Obama [official profile] on Wednesday signed an executive order [text] to increase penalties against foreign cybersecurity threats. The executive order establishes sanctions against individuals or entities outside the US that engage in “significant malicious cyber-enabled activity.” The new sanctions program authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and 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.” The penalties imposed include blocking actors’ property and interests in property in the US, imposing restrictions to business activities within the US, and the imposition of a travel ban to the US.

The Obama administration has identified cybersecurity as “one of the most serious economic and national security issues” that the US is currently facing, and the US government has dedicated significant resources to address the issue. In April 2013 the US House of Representatives [official website] passed a controversial cybersecurity bill [JURIST report] that allows corporations to share customers’ personal data with other firms and the US government, even if a company contract prohibits such activity. A year prior, Obama administration official Melanie Ann Pustay testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] to urge congressional officials to amend [JURIST report] the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [official website] in order to strengthen the government’s ability to prevent disclosure of information related to critical infrastructure and cybersecurity.