Crossroads Blog | CYBER SECURITY LAW AND POLICY

White House

SOTU

For those interested, President Obama made a brief reference to cyber-security in his State of the Union address:

"That’s why, working with our military leaders, I have proposed a new defense strategy that ensures we maintain the finest military in the world, while saving nearly half a trillion dollars in our budget.  To stay one step ahead of our adversaries, I have already sent this Congress legislation that will secure our country from the growing danger of cyber-threats."

I was hoping for more, but so be it.

With regard to China, President Obama promised to create a "Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China."  Although he didn't explicitly mention cyber-espionage, President Obama did say that "It’s not right when another country lets our movies, music, and software be pirated."  I'm still interested to see if the Obama administration will confront China on its pervasive cyber-espionage.  These statements clearly didn't rise to that level.  However, might they evidence a subtle shift in the US non-confrontational stance? 

You can find the text of the SOTU address here, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.

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