On January 20, 2015, President Obama stressed the need for privacy and cybersecurity legislation in his annual State of the Union Address. The President's speech followed a series of White House initiatives, including a speech at the Federal Trade Commission (accompanying fact sheet), a speech at the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (accompanying fact sheet), remarks before congressional leadership, a joint statement with Prime Minister David Cameron on U.S./U.K. cybersecurity cooperation, and an announcement by Vice President Joseph Biden regarding a cybersecurity consortium at historically black colleges and universities. The central components of these proposals include:
- Facilitating cyber threat information sharing between the government and private sector;
- Updating law enforcement authority to pursue and prosecute cybercriminals;
- Establishing a national data breach notification standard;
- Allowing educational data to be used only for educational purposes;
- Advancing a renewed proposal for a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights;
- Launching Department of Energy programs;
- Convening a cybersecurity summit at Stanford University.
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