The number of information security incidents grew more than 11-fold between 2006 and 2014 to 67,168, and attacks from other countries have been on the rise.
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Notably China has acknowledged that hackers there were connected to the breach of the Office of Personnel Management which lost comprehensive records of 22 million federal employees, contractors and job applicants.
Public-facing federal Web sites have been abused, most notoriously the Internal Revenue Service’s online services which coughed up detailed tax records of more than 334,000 taxpayers to hackers scamming the system.
To help stem the tide, Obama has announced the Cybersecurity National Action Plan, which lays down a series of specifics to stem the tide and modernize the government’s digital networks. It would strengthen security but also provide for the education of experts needed to ensure ongoing improvements.
Here are the essentials of the plan: